Photographs of bees in Fiordland are on display in A Year in Aotearoa, an exhibition of the top 40 images from the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year 2020 Competition.
Now in its eleventh year, the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year Competition celebrates the work of New Zealand’s best photographers with the winning images from five categories: aerial, wildlife, landscape, photo-story, and society.
Maritime Museum Director Vincent Lipanovich says, “Museums are places of collective memory, and also where we explore relationships with each other and our natural environments.” He says the selection “illustrates a historic year for our country” and is “a beautiful expression of the desire all of us have to build and understand the interconnections of place and people that shape us as humans.”
Denisa Maňásková, a finalist in the photo-story category – where entrants are judged on the quality of the images overall, as well as how they work together to tell a story – documented the process of harvesting honey on an organic saffron farm in Te Anau. She had to overcome her fear of bees in order to capture busy beehives full of honey.
A Year in Aotearoa is at New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui A Tangaroa until March.
First published ArtZone #84
Photographs: Denisa Maňásková, Te Anau, Fiordland.
Images courtesy of New Zealand Geographic and New Zealand Maritime Museum.