Opening night: 2018 Amateur Photographer of the Year

The exhibition for the 2018 Sigma D-Photo Amateur Photographer of the Year competition opened on Thursday 26 July at Metro Gallery in Auckland and saw many from the photographic community come together in appreciation of our new winners.

This is only the second year that we’ve run the exhibition as a part of the competition, and as a culmination of the work put in by sponsors, judges, the team at D-Photo, and the photographers themselves, it is a very welcome event for all those involved. The mood was certainly celebratory as amateur photographers from around New Zealand mingled with industry professionals and representatives from some of the largest photography brands in the country. We were very happy to see large numbers of the public in attendance, many of whom had been following the competition closely from the beginning.

Grand prizewinner Kate Parsonson made the trip up from Wellington for the event, receiving not only the overall prize from Sigma, but also both first and second place in the Monochrome category.

Aside from the wonderful prizes received, many of the winning photographers spoke of simply appreciating the recognition received for their photography and the satisfaction of seeing their image in print on the wall of a gallery.

The exhibition is well worth a look — it is open to the public and runs until 13 August at Metro Gallery, 222 Hobson Street, Auckland.