New: Māwhera National Salon of Photography

By Elizabeth Passuello FPSNZ FNPSNZ GMAPS EFIAP EPSA

The Greymouth Photography Club is all set for an exciting year ahead as it celebrates its 70th Anniversary, including the introduction of a new national salon.

Founded on 18 February 1953, by a small group of film and still camera enthusiasts, the Greymouth Photography Club was originally known as the Greymouth Cine and Camera Club, then later (1970) the Greymouth Camera Club. In 2007 the “camera” in its name was replaced by “photography” to bring more emphasis to the art rather than the apparatus.

The club currently has around 40 members, ranging in ability from those just beginning their photographic journey to others with years of experience behind them. The majority of our members are from Greymouth, Hokitika and surrounding areas on the West Coast. We are also pleased to have a few members from further afield in Canterbury, Otago and as far north as Tauranga.

As 2023 sees our club turning 70, we wanted to do something special to celebrate such a significant milestone in its history; therefore, our 70th Anniversary will be marked by several events spread throughout the year.

Two ways to mark the occasion will come in published form. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, we published an annual book, titled Diversity, featuring members' photographs. This year we are publishing a 70th Anniversary edition as well as a second book which will record the history of our club. Later in the year, we will hold a print exhibition of members' photographs in the Left Bank Art Gallery, Greymouth. It will run for several weeks in the leadup to Christmas.

However, the biggest event to celebrate our anniversary and, we think the most exciting of all, will be a new national salon: the Māwhera National Salon of Photography. Greymouth (Māwhera) has hosted PSNZ conventions in past years, but never (as far as we can determine) have we run our very own national salon.

We have a salon committee of five very enthusiastic members who are pleased to be able to offer this new salon to all photographers in New Zealand and PSNZ financial members residing overseas. Our salon will be hosted on a site which specialises in salons (both national and international) and club competitions; check it out here: https://mawhera. myphotoclub.com.au.

The Māwhera National Salon of Photography has five sections: Open Colour, Open Monochrome, Nature, Creative and Portraits. We have taken some inspiration from the internationals for the Open sections and opted to keep colour and monochrome separate. For the purposes of our salon, the Portraits section will include people and/or animals.

We are thrilled to have six renowned and highly respected New Zealand photographers judging our salon. Toya Heatley FPSNZ AFIAP, Shona Kebble FPSNZ and Glenda Rees will be judging the Open Colour and Nature sections, while Liz Hardley FPSNZ EFIAP/g MAPS EPSA LRPS, Shelley Harvey BPSA and Karen Moffatt-McLeod APSNZ will judge Open Monochrome, Creative and Portraits.

Up for grabs are some fabulous awards. In each section, a Gold, Silver and Bronze medal and six Honours ribbons will be awarded. While these awards are determined by agreement among the judges, each judge will also award a Judge's Choice ribbon to a photograph of their own choosing, one per judge in each section (i.e. a total of three per section).

A PDF salon catalogue will be available to all entrants via the website after the salon, while a screening of all successful entries will be held at a meeting of the Greymouth Photography Club on 18 July 2023.

The salon opens for entries on 1 May 2023 and will close on 31 May 2023. We are looking forward to seeing all your amazing images in our salon! Any enquiries can be sent to the Salon Chair at mawherasalon@gmail.com.