Control is a key theme in 2018’s Auckland Festival of Photography, the 15th year the annual photography festival is providing Auckland audiences with world class exhibitions and events during its [May 31- June 22] three-week winter timeframe.

“Despite public funding paralysis in the country’s largest city, festival audiences have doubled in the past seven years” says public participation director Julia Durkin. “We are hoping for increased investment for us to manage our growing regional success.”

“Since 2004 AFP has made a major contribution to how Aucklanders enjoy cultural activities across the region. The festival is New Zealand’s largest free visual arts festival and we are proud, in our 15th year, to continue to present world class projects that highlight issues communities need to consider. We invite audiences to enjoy the nearly 100 exhibitions and events on offer that showcase the work of leading New Zealand and international photographers.”

AFP features twelve Control-themed exhibitions, eighteen ‘Core’ exhibitions and seventeen ‘Talking Culture’ events - including presentations by award-winning US photojournalist Maggie Steber, Argentinian artist Alejandro Chaskielberg and leading German political photographer Herlinde Koelbl. There are also forty-seven ‘Satellite’ exhibitions across the region – including a three-year study of the Waterview Tunnel project and solo and group shows.

Most of 2018’s Control-themed exhibitions are based at the AFP hub, Silo Park in Wynyard Quarter. Many prompt reflections on how, as Control curator Gwen Lee describes it, “the rampant presence of photography” has invaded private and public realms. “Surveillance, aided by digitalization and satellites, propels questions about power underlying all forms of control, often belying the fact that control starts with one in power, administrating action on others.”

The popular Nikon Auckland Photo Day returns on 9 June. The 24-hour competition invites people to capture still or moving images of the Auckland region on one day. An outdoor exhibition at Queens Wharf and a digital Photo Map project will help share the the archive of more than 10,000 images entered since the annual competition began in 2004.
Further details at photographyfestival.org.nz

For more information and interview opportunities, please contact: Victor van Wetering, media liaison, Auckland Festival of Photography, (09) 849 6565