Auckland Council - Regional Parks

Auckland Council's Southern Regional Parks team manages and cares for a network of regional parks across South Auckland, overseeing conservation, recreation, events and facilities, and helping people connect with nature across the region.

The commission came about through the Pōhutukawa Coast Calendar, which I have been producing as a community fundraiser for over ten years. Someone who had been buying the calendar recommended my work to the Council when they were looking for a photographer. Being local was an advantage, and the calendars gave them a clear sense of the quality and character of my photography before we even spoke.

The goal was to build a photo library for maps, brochures and website updates, images that would do what pages of text never could: invite people in. Over twelve months I documented six parks across the seasons, Waitawa, Duder, Ōmana, Tapapakanga, Orere Point, Tawhitokino and the Hunua Ranges, finding and photographing the character of each place rather than imposing something on it.

What made it exceptional was the people. Rather than staging anything, I photographed whoever I found, horse riders, walking groups, families, couples, fathers with their kids. Real people doing what they actually do in these parks.

This project finishes in May 2026, and the images that go beyond the brief stay with me, part of an ongoing body of work rooted in this landscape.