A CELEBRATION OF NEW ZEALAND MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY
2019
From The Pit From The Pit is a celebration of the craft and art of live music photography in New Zealand. Each week dozens of photographers are huddled in music venues up and down the country capturing photos of New Zealand's vibrant music scene. It's a difficult and unpredictable environment to work in, but these photographers work tirelessly to capture the magic they see before them. Part artists, part historians, but all music fans, they all strive to take the perfect photo which reflects how it felt to be at the concert and communicates the excitement of a live music event. From The Pit aims to share the wonderful work by these photographers with a wider audience.
From The Pit – 2019 Print Exhibition From The Pit aims to raise the profile of New Zealand music photography through an annual curated exhibition showing images of the highest quality. Timed to coincide with NZ Music Month, the exhibition featured recent images of New Zealand musicians playing live in New Zealand. The main print exhibition was displayed for four weeks at Flying Out record store in Pitt Street, Auckland. Images were printed and mounted with exceptional quality by Black and White Box. The exhibition was launched at the Taite Music Awards on the 16th April at Q Theatre and 7 images were also on display on their ‘red wall’ for 6 weeks to the end of May.
Audio Visual An extended remix of the print exhibition with bonus additional content was also available as an audio visual version including a total of 68 images from 21 photographers made up of images from the print exhibition and other images from the chosen photographers. From The Pit would like to thank the following artists for letting us use their music on the video: • Tami Neilson • Julia Deans • Wax Chattels • Devilskin • Arthur Ahbez And a massive thanks to Ginny C for creating the audio visual fromthepit.co.nz/watch
The Photographers The print exhibition included work from 21 photographers who between them cover the whole of New Zealand
Adam Binns
Ginny C
Rachel Webb
Bevan Triebels
Ivan Karczewski
Reuben Raj
Chontalle Musson
Maisy Riera
Shelley Te Haara
Chris Morgan
Mark Derricutt
Stella Gardiner
Connor Crawford
Matt Henry
Steve Bone
Dave Simpson
Ngamihi Pawa
Trevor Villers
Gerry le Roux
Nikita Weir
Coverage There was a great buzz about the inaugural exhibition with coverage in a number of different media outlets:
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Interview and article on Radio New Zealand. RNZ Music - Live NZ Music Photography: tales from the pit fromthepit.co.nz/rnz Interview with Pennie Black of 95bfm during her One to Four show 2 giant size posters thanks to Phantom Billstickers and NZ Music Month Coverage on various NZ based music websites Eventfinda and facebook page listings and boosted content
Future Plans With the success of the first exhibition we are looking to repeat the exhibition in 2020 using a similar formula – recent photos taken in New Zealand venues of New Zealand musicians, taken by photographers regularly working in the music photography genre. Next year we will look to extend the number of photographers invited to participate and look at how we can host print exhibitions outside of Auckland. We are also trialling a radio show/podcast focused on music photography. This will be in conjunction with community radio station, Planet FM.
Thanks From the Pit would like to thank these awesome organisations for their generous support and encouragement: •
Spark
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Flying Out
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Q Theatre
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Independent Music New Zealand
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New Zealand Music Commission
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New Zealand Music Month
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Black and White Box
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Phantom Billstickers
From The Pit Curators Dave Simpson and Reuben Raj (photo by Matt Henry)
Our photographers were delighted to donate $220 to MusicHelps to support their vital work.
“Thank you for the donation, we really appreciate it! It’s always very heartening when we’re selected as the official charity of an event like this, it’s a real vote of support and it gives us a lot of motivation to keep up with what we’re doing.” MusicHelps
musichelps.org.nz
Peter Dickens, General Manager of
Wax Chattels by Connor Crawford Chelsea Jade by Dave Simpson Eddie Rayner by Steve Bone Ladi6 by Reuben Raj Jon Toogood (Shihad) by Bevan Triebels Julia Deans (Fur Patrol) by Stella Gardiner Photography Mark Petersen (Straitjacket Fits) by Ivan Karczewski Milly Tabak by Adam Binns
Nomad by Chontalle Musson Possum Plows (Openside) by Steve Bone Princess Chelsea by Rachel Webb Randa by Maisy Riera Skinny Hobos by Matt Henry Tami Neilson by Gerry le Roux Aldous Harding by Reuben Raj Arthur Ahbez by Dave Simpson
Connan Mockasin by Connor Crawford Dead Favours by Antonia Pearl Photography Delaney Davidson by Trevor Villers Devilskin by Chris Morgan Dion Lunadon (D4) by Ngamihi Pawa Dity Maharaj (Coridian) by Mark Derricutt - Chalice of Blood Hollie Smith by Ginelle Cocks Jennie Smathers (Devilskin) by Shelley Te Haara