Progress Over the Years
My creative path began when I was eight years old, my mother placed a small orange Time magazine 110 camera in my hands — a moment that sparked a lifelong curiosity into image-making. For more than twenty years, I worked as a Newspaper/ Magazine Photographer in Wellington, developing a career with the Evening Post, Dominion and Hutt News to name a few. My work was grounded in portraiture, photo journalism and documentary photography.
From 1997 to 2000, I served as the official Parliamentary Portrait Photographer, following three years as a sports photographer under the mentorship of legendary All Blacks photographer Peter Bush. During my tenure, I established a Portrait Studio within Parliament — photographing Members of Parliament, dignitaries, and visiting heads of state. This period shaped my eye and skill for documenatry photography and the human presence within historic moments.
I was privileged to represent New Zealand as a scholarship recipient at the Missouri Photojournalism Workshop in the United States, where I trained under National Geographicphotographers and editors alongside thirty-nine international participants. That experience profoundly influenced my visual storytelling — cultivating a sensitivity to working in tight deadlines, story telling and developing the patience for capturing the emotional truth behind every image.
Upon returning home, I was invited by Jim Moriarty to document the lives of fifteen women serving life sentences in Christchurch Women’s Prison — a raw and powerful project that included two of New Zealand’s well known murder cases at the time. Tania Whittaker and Gaye Oaks. The Dowse Art Museum & Gallery later approached me to exhibit this body of work, which I declined. My photographic work has been represented in the permanent collection of Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand since 1999.
In recent years, I have returned to the tactile and contemplative realm of early photography through wet-plate collodion processes, working with a large-format camera to explore historic methods whilst creating portraits that feel timeless.
In May 2025, after a year in creation, I presented my very popular Huia Bird Portraits at my debut Exhibition at Caccia Birch House — reimagining the extinct Huia through a Victorian-inspired lens. The collection merged mixed media gouache, collage and fine art photography to celebrate the grace and enduring beauty of the Huia, adorned in Victorian floral romanticism and natural history references.
At the heart of my current practice is Te Huia: A Visual Sound Portrait — a major collaborative exhibition set to premiere in 2026. This evolving body of work weaves together a composed Huia Dawn Chorus, projection-mapped visuals, carved waka huia, faux taxidermy Huia family displays, settler stories, and a sculpted giant nest honouring the only known Huia nest ever found near Ashhurst.
Through these interwoven forms, I explore the Huia as a symbol of grace, beauty, and legacy — an act of remembrance and curiosity, a way of honouring what has been while recognising the fragile beauty of what still remains.
