showcase new zealand issue 420

Jul 2013

Reload Agency: Auckland styling, hair, makeup agents

Reload Agency is a creative artist management agency with full service production offices in both New Zealand and Australia.

The agency offers its expertise across the fields of photography, production management, hair, make-up, styling and retouching. With over 20 years' experience in the industry and an impressive, award-winning talent roster, Reload is able to offer clients the very best service in every aspect of a project. Committed to pushing creative boundaries, Reload Agency coordinates every step of the process.

Clients include Nikon, Vodafone, Westpac, Sony, Westfield, Levi's, Lee, Nike, Audi, Ponds, Toyota, Moontide, Coca-Cola, ANZ Bank, Telecom, Les Mills, Virgin Airlines, Air New Zealand, Canon, Commonwealth Bank, OPSM, Microsoft, PlayStation and Panadol.

Pacey Production Company : Auckland full photo production

Take advantage of an infinite choice of stunning location options in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific. Pacey Production Company delivers world-class photographic production services professionally and flexibly whether the budget is large or small.

PPC can handle both the creative and practical aspects of a project. Services including location scouting, casting, set design and construction, crew booking and shoot co-ordination are managed to international standards. With the local knowledge and contacts to take care of those tricky details like permits and insurance, PPC ensures a professional result that comes in on budget.

AJ Films: New Zealand | Australia | South Pacific Film + Photo Production Services

New Zealand is famous for its bounty of diverse locations, crews, world-class equipment and post production facilities. Creative producers Amanda Jenkins and Nic Leggett bring over 40 years' experience to the table for advertising print campagins and television commercial production.

AJ Films specialises in production service in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific Islands, specifically in Fiji. Nic has spent a busy NZ winter in the tropics facilitating through Film Fiji, ABC Australia, Fiji Airways (previously Air Pacific), Baku Australia and Discovery Channel New York. Meanwhile in New Zealand, Amanda has just finished working in the lake district surrounding Mt Cook with Jeans West Australia, DDB Shop and photographer Cory White. Audi New Zealand took a road trip around the South Island for the new 'Land of Quattro' TVC with director/DOP Lee Howell and agency BCG2.

Contact Amanda Jenkins to discuss upcoming work.

Tony Drayton: Auckland fashion photographers

Tony Drayton is an international fashion and beauty photographer. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, Tony is often found shooting offshore around the Pacific from Shanghai to LA.

Tony has a huge passion and talent for capturing beautiful imagery. Whether it's directing commercials or shooting advertising campaigns, Tony brings a signature style to all of his work.

For further work and representative details visit his website.

Andreas Smetana: New Zealand - Australia advertising photographers

When budgets are tight and expectations are high, only the work of the truly talented will suffice. With a powerful combination of experience, imagination and hard work, Andreas Smetana lifts campaigns to the next level. From commercial campaigns to the most high-end creative jobs, he delivers breathtaking results. This drive and passion has made Andreas one of the industry's most sought-after and respected photographers and is why his work has won multiple awards around the world.

"Regardless of the size of a job, I always invest the same amount of labor and love, working to give each campaign that special quality. Good work is hard work and I work extremely hard to create a strong, captivating and effective end product." See the difference for yourself.

Kieran Scott: Auckland food & drink photographers

The day Kieran Scott decided to focus on food, in the late 1980s, he arranged some pasta, tomatoes and basil on a table and shot them from overhead. People thought he was mad, but he was just beginning to rewrite the rules of the genre.

A master of natural light and composition, Kieran seeks to capture the decisive moment, and a decisive moment for him was, as a schoolboy, discovering the photography section at the public library in Timaru. There he absorbed the gritty images of the Magnum photographers that continue to inform his work.

A professional musician until 1987, he then turned gypsy photographer and did a diploma in London before continuing to travel and experiment. Back in New Zealand, Kieran photographed Marlborough vineyards during the 1991 harvest. Sold to an image library in London, they were the first stock shots of the nascent wine industry.

His work was soon picked up by premium magazines in Australasia and he started shooting pioneering features of his own design - winemakers dining at home, documentary-style with portraits and action, or a chef cooking on the beach - creating images full of energy and movement.

Sought-after by major international magazines, he loves to shoot people engaged in reality and never tires of shooting food. He would be really happy if he could get to all his jobs on his Vespa.

Sara Orme: Auckland fashion & lifestyle photographers

Sara Orme is represented by The Collective Force.  Her work reflects a childhood of extremes. Born and raised in genteel Christchurch, her holidays were spent with her Maori father’s family in a small rural community. Back home, her dad, a lawyer for the Christchurch City Council, took her to garden parties where she’d meet dignitaries such as the Queen or Prime Minister.

Negotiating these diverse milieus, she developed an easy empathy with people of all walks of life, whether the young models in her raw, fresh fashion shoots or the gang members who are the subject of a personal documentary project.

She grew up with a rich visual life nurtured by her art teacher mother, and as a child she and a friend would set up elaborate fantasy photo shoots. At university she studied art history and sociology, majoring in women’s studies. Some may see irony in that for a fashion photographer; Sara sees a visual celebration of women.

She juggled her exploration of photography with motherhood, before studying formally at Unitec in Auckland. Her commercial work is evenly split between fashion - both on location and in the studio - and people-based advertising campaigns, all enriched by her personal work.

She retains the sociologist’s fascination with people’s stories, seeking an emotional quality and beauty beyond the surface across all her work.

Spid: Auckland people & lifestyle photographers

The rapport that Spid establishes with the talent is reflected in his engaging, character-driven portraits. This, he believes, is the most important aspect of his job, allowing him to elicit moments of spontaneity that bring a sense of freedom into his often-humorous, quirky images.

Brought up on a farm in Ngatea, at the age of seven he got tired of seeing family photos with the heads missing and took it upon himself to sort it out - the start of his driving passion. After leaving school he worked as an electrician, saving to buy his first camera at 17. He then embarked on several years of experimentation before attending art school in London.

Back in New Zealand he studied graphic design before working as an assistant in fashion and still life. Since then, his main focus has been portraiture, often in a “street” style. In his personal work Spid is always seeking something different he can bring into his commercial work, and interesting characters. He’s fascinated by the subtleties of people’s faces, the reflection of their inner selves. That’s part of the challenge - digging into a subject’s soul to draw out those nuances in expression that each tell a different story.

Chris Sisarich: Auckland people & lifestyle photographers

“When I was a kid, I always dreamt I would sail around the world with my best friend Hamish. The dream didn’t make a lot of sense, because I didn’t sail. I think it spoke more about the two things I really prized – friendship and adventure.” 

Chris is now based in Auckland, New Zealand, where he lives with his wife and two daughters. His time is spent on his own personal projects, photographic commissions and directing. 

Chris’s work shooting landscapes, lifestyle and cars, takes him around the globe, from the mountains of New Zealand to the deserts in North Africa.