The photographers are Aucklanders Solomon Mortimer and Zahra Killen- Chance, for their photobook A Room in Whanganui, which explores the studio room of the Tylee Cottage in Whanganui, and Sheryl Campbell whose photobook Droplet uses humour and theatricality to shine a light on sexism, objectification and assault in corporate New Zealand. Hamilton photographer Mark Purdom’s SLT shows a forensic approach to showing the traces left by burnouts.

The three winners share equally in $5,000 printing credits from Wellington’s Wakefields Digital, enabling them to print more book works.

Three Wellington photographers, Jane Wilcox, Between Dog and Wolf, Peter Black, Motel Life and Ann Shelton, mother lode, were highly commended.

Judges Athol McCredie, Claire Mabey and Neil Pardington say of the winning books:

“A Room in Whanganui was an outlier among our submissions in terms of its creativity, the fun, and the joy of the project, not to mention the way it plays with the idea of a duplicate receipt book.

“Droplet is conceptually and politically brilliant. It is a strong feminist work that gets to the bottom of a very serious issue, and the revelations of inappropriate sexual conduct at a well-known law firm will come as no surprise to many readers. It employs dark humour to communicate its message and draws upon a tradition of female activism in photography.

“The focused concept of SLT (short for Sustained Loss of Traction), cast a new light on burnt-outs, transforming the rubber left by tyres into another kind of mark-making. In the words of one of the judges “It turns boy-racing into something beautiful, which I didn’t think was possible.”

The Aotearoa Photobook Awards are organised by Photobook/NZ, with sponsorship from Wakefields Digital and the ten finalist books will be on display at the August Photobook/NZ festival in Wellington.

To see the full write up of judge’s comments, visit https://www.photobooknz.com/aotearoa-photobook-awards