life & awards

I was born in Melbourne on March 17th, 1981 and shifted to Auckland New Zealand when I was 4.  From a very early age I drew, painted,  experimented with different materials and was always 'making stuff' (and making a mess) -  my grandfather even taught me how to draw perspectives at 4 !  I always knew that I would end up in a creative career and  for some reason at 11 I decided I would be an Architect.  I don't exactly know why I decided this as nobody in my family was one, but it seemed to be the perfect profession for me that combined both the creative art and intellectual side of what I enjoyed at school.  When I was 14 I moved to St. Heliers to live so to me, the Bays feels like home.


Then after school at 17 it was straight into an Architecture Degree at Auckland University.  By the end of a very long and tiring 5 year degree I had learnt enough to go into many professions - interior design, graphic design, computer rendering, but I decided to stick with the architecture and work, to this day, as a full time Architect & Interior Designer in Auckland.  


Now you are probably thinking  'so where does the photography fit in ?' ...   Well during one of my architecture papers we had to make cardboard panoramic 'pinhole' cameras and experiment with them.  Then we had to somehow use these photo experiments / themes to design a piece of architecture out of (very abstract I know !)   I found this extremely fascinating and loved the photos that I took - my tutor,  well known New Zealand Architect Pip Cheshire also liked one of my photos so much that he asked if he could buy it off me.  Completely surprised I said 'yes' and the seed was planted - 'maybe others may like my photos and buy them off me too... ?'  I thought I better do a photography paper as I really knew nothing about photography - so I took one at Uni which taught me the basics and from there my 'experimenting nature' taught me the rest.  I found that trial and error were the best way to teach myself - and with digital cameras this is very cheap and easy !  I was also lucky enough to meet met fellow photographers along the way that taught me a lot of what I  know.  So I started experimenting with photography and using my local area and the urban wastelands of Auckland City as my subject matter. 


I have fond memories of my mum and I getting up at 6am in the cold in Winter to set up at stall at Aotea Markets,  but the wind, rain and heat wasn't good for my photos (or me!) so I decided to start selling at Eastridge Shopping Mall which I still do today and is just great.  Then I decided to start entering into the New Zealand Photography Awards and won the '2006 New Zealand Still LIfe Photographer of the Year' which was just amazing !  Then last year I won '2007 New Zealand Creative Photographer of the Year' which blew me away again - now I am a registered New Zealand 'Commercial Photographer' and 'Master Photographer'.  So all in all it has been a rather exciting couple of years for me.  I now also sell my work through the Auckland Home Shows, through Texan Art School and Eon Design Store and online through my website.  I would say around 40% of my photography work travels it's way overseas to homesick Kiwis all over the world.


So currently the architectural career fits in well with the photography career (although I don't have too much spare time for myself) because at the end of the day you have to have an understanding of the same things - composition, colour and space - and both require constant creativity & designl.  Then when I am designing my interiors I often custom design photographic artworks that fit in with the space, colour sheme and theme that I have designed.  Also I have had a lot of time to experiment with architectural photography on the projects we have completed so that has become an area of specialisation for me as well.


Where to from here ? - well, I  will just wait and see - I have so many things I would like to do.  I would love to be an artist and paint for days on end, and at some point publish a series of photography books and set up my own photography gallery  ...    but one thing at a time !
Lucy

________________________________________________


2008 Australian Photography Awards (AIPP)
-4 silver awards (Illustrative)

________________________________________________


2007 New Zealand Photography Awards
-'2007 NZ Creative Photographer of the Year' (NZIPP)

-New Zealand 'Master Photographer' NZIPP
-1 gold award
-3 silver awards
-3 bronze awards
-‘Highest scoring monochrome print award’ – runner up 2007

________________________________________________


2006 New Zealand Photography Awards
-'2006 NZ Still Life Photographer of the Year' (NZIPP)

-‘Photographer of the Year’ finalist 2006
-‘Highest scoring colour print award’ – runner up 2006
-1 gold award (Still Life / Self Promotion) 2006
-3 silver awards (Still Life, Wedding, Landscape) 2006
-3 bronze awards (Wedding, People) 2006
                                                           

"'Lucy's photos are more than photos to me, they are pieces of art ...'" Cherie Langlois-Rivers

© 2007 LUCY G DESIGN LTD | Site Development: iSite Interactive