Auckland Festival of Photography: Wrung and Misshapen

Our world has gotten weird, a little munted

No longer all we took for granted

The artists are witness to this disruption

And see the ways in which it is avant-garde

Or atavistic

Which horizons to traverse, though all gets stranger

To sometimes even reach the calm beyond

Wrung and Misshapen is curated by Hayley Theyers and features a selection of artists from Depot Artspace’s Wayfind Creative and ArtsLab programmes.

About the Artists:

Nelly Farmiloe

Beneath the Blue is a recent project by local photographer Nelly Farmiloe, currently in her final year of university at Photography Studies College in Melbourne. Created by chemically manipulating film, the series explores the decay and destruction of waterways, referencing the global water crisis and the continual damage pollution inflicts. These images are part of a much more extensive photo-book from her 2021 end of year folio assessments.

Francesa Gallo

Francesca was born in Italy, where she completed an Art Diploma with a Certificate in Graphic Design. After her gap year in Australia in 2006, she returned to the Pacific to visit Aotearoa New Zealand where she eventually settled in 2007.

A self-taught photographer with over 20 years of experience in Graphic Design, she is currently living in rural Kaipara where she is project-managing community gardens while studying her Permacutlture and Horticulture Certificates. She is a member of the Earth Beat Festival as a Visual Operations Manager – Mixed Media Specialist, takes part in group and non-profit exhibitions with conceptual artworks, and volunteers or exchanges her design skills within art and music festivals, projects which contribute to well-being or socially conscious projects, and small businesses.

Sophia Jenny

Sophia Jenny is an Auckland-based visual artist specialising in the cameraless medium of cyanotype photography, also known as sun printing. She was a freelance commercial photographer and videographer for ten years, before changing direction and focusing on her own creative practice. This is her first time exhibiting in a visual art setting.

Stephen Perry

Stephen Perry has been an Art Photographer for forever. He challenges his audience to confront what they think they know about the world, and to ‘have another look.’ Fascinated by the debunked notion that photography is reality, Perry captures imagery that is straight out of the camera, then juxtaposes it alongside familiar images of our world that have been enhanced, modified, or manipulated. The viewer is forced to scrutinise what they see, leaving them with a precarious sense of unease; unease reflects how many people are left feeling about our new world reality. Ultimately, Perry believes that photography can not only illuminate, but also confuse our perceptions.

AJ Reid

AJ Reid is a photographer, filmmaker, and graphic artist. Originally from Miami, he moved to Aotearoa in the middle of the pandemic in 2020 and brought with him a sharp and curious eye, not to mention an intolerance for cold weather. Armed with his camera, he roams the picturesque Aotearoa New Zealand landscape and documents the journey for art’s sake. He is currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

David Shields

David K. Shields has been travelling the world for the past 40 years, the last 25 of which have been devoted to the pursuit of the best image. Shields looks for character and energy that inspires him; the ability of a subject to show him that spontaneous moment which no one can predict. He thrives within the freedom of boundaries which this lifestyle allows. He is currently working on his MFA at Elam School of Fine Arts, marking a shift in his creative trajectory as an experienced fashion photographer with work in many of the most high-profile fashion publications.

Shields has been involved in a number of projects with global reach: the renowned travelling exhibition ‘THE FASHION WORLD OF JEAN-PAUL GAUTIER: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk’; a mixed-media exhibition and publication titled ‘SOCIAL FABRIC EARTH RETURN’ by Claudia Hill (Berlin), and the exhibition ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN which featured makers from Otago, Aotearoa and China, held in the Yu Yuan Gardens of Shanghai. Shields has also been working on He Kākano Ahau, a mixed media project by Māori artists Kiri (toi raranga) and Jason Nathon (toi whakairo), for over twelve years.

Hayley Theyers

Hayley Theyers is a lens-based artist residing in Huia, in the Waitakere Ranges. Her art draws from the collective unconscious familiar to us from dreams. Theyers has been represented by Black Asterisk gallery, where she has had two solo shows: ‘I too have been to Arcadia’ (2016) and ‘In the dark we are without her Empress light’ (2019), of which PhotoForum’s Nina Seja praised her work’s “ability to suggest a larger story beyond the frame”. 

Theyers curated ‘The Lovers’ at Black Asterisk (2019), ‘Made’, Huia (2020), and has also participated in many other group shows including ‘The Art of Death’ at Highwic House  (2019), ‘Communicating Vessels’ at Photospace Gallery (2021), and ‘Still Life/Wild Places’ at Katherine Mansfield House in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. She is also known for her portraits for Phantom Billstickers’ Musicians of Aotearoa series, which were displayed around the country during New Zealand Music Month 2017-19.