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Jonathan Bourla 1 Aotearoa Artist Magazine

Jonathan Bourla

Jonathan Bourla Aotearoa Artist Magazine

CREATIVE FORCE

Jonathan Bourla has never been formally trained, however he has gained invaluable experience and insight from the likes of Ansel Adams and Howard Bond. In 1997 when he travelled from New Zealand to attend a workshop in America run by Howard Bond, Howard realised Jonathan couldn’t learn everything from a single workshop so he gave him a whole book’s worth of notes to take home. 

These notes, together with instructional books written by the great American photographer Ansel Adams, formed the basis of his education. Both Howard and Ansel believed you had to be in good control of the technical aspects before you would be in a position to express yourself creatively. Adams had created a system called the Zone System which allowed you to calculate ideal camera settings and film development times. “It was very difficult to grasp from Adams’ writings but became clearer from Bond’s notes. Many people apparently give up on the Zone System as too complicated but it formed the basis of my photography’s technical side for many years.”

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Ninette Kruger

Ninette Kruger-aotearoa-artist-the-nz-artist-magazine

PROCESS AND PURPOSE

Born in South Africa, Ninette Kruger has always enjoyed being creative and explored different mediums until she discovered pewter embossing in 2004.

She taught herself the basics from an instructional book, and later attended a more advanced  techniques workshop at a pewter studio  in Johannesburg. Since then , she has been focused on refining her technique and thoroughly enjoying metal embossing as a hobby. “I started out with a career in the food and hotel industry, which I absolutely loved, and completed my MBA in 2006. I quickly realised the corporate world was not for me, and set out to carve out a creative career for myself. I immigrated to New Zealand with my family in 2016 and during lockdown 2020, I attended an online artist masterclass that changed my world.”

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James Price

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SOOTHING INSPIRATION

James Price had done some photography previously but in 2021 completed the Level 4 New Zealand Certificate in Creativity through The Learning Connexion. In 2022 James completed the Level 5 Diploma with them, and is already working through Level 6 and loving every moment of his study.

“I love being behind a camera, and whilst commercial work might pay the bills, I like spending time working on a single image that might not come together otherwise. Art for me is when you share a bit of your soul with what you do.” Art has carried him through his three very different careers, becoming the defining part of his character: “In my first career, I looked at art. In my second career, art was a learning experience, and in my third career, art was part of the creative process. Art has taught me, soothed me, and inspired me. Now I continue my journey with art, as an artist. It’s pretty cool.”  

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Parmeet Sahni - Aotearoa Artist

Parmeet Sahni

Parmeet Sahni - Aotearoa Artist

Parmeet Sahni started with photography when she bought a DSLR camera to take some photos of her daughters. After posting these online, she received a request from a friend to do a shoot of their children. She started watching tutorials and joining groups to enhance her skills and built up a passion for capturing people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds. “I reckon I have always loved photography and preserving special moments. Photography has become my soul’s calling.”

Having attended many photography workshops and done some short courses in and out of Auckland, Parmeet participated in newborn photography training in New Plymouth in 2016, as well as a landscape photography course at Mt Cook for six weeks, revolving around photography and processing details. “Something that motivated me to take on photography professionally was the concept of freezing time. My company name, Soulful Memories, speaks for itself. Photography for me has never been about fame or money, but rather capturing moments that are truly special, whether they are special for my client or me. Life is all about memories. The more memories I am able to give people, the more motivated I become to create more. I know I’ve come to a point where photography and me have become inseparable. It gives me immense satisfaction.” Parmeet strongly believes in the saying ‘Time flies, but memories stay’, and this is what makes her so passionate about her work. Seeing people out and about, living their lives, everyone on their own unique path, is thrilling for her and is what she tries to capture, especially with her street portraits. For her, as long as she maintains an open mind, inspiration is everywhere.
See more about Parmeet here

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Marina De Wit

Marina de Wit

By dictionary definition, fulfillment is described as ‘the act or state of fulfilling: to witness the fulfillment of a dream; to achieve one’s hopes.’ For Marina de Wit, this is found through the lens of a camera. This however wasn’t always the case.

“I knew I had something to share, that I was meant to do something with my life that had meaning and that could potentially impact others in a positive way. I was at a pretty low point in my life. Photography and the creative aspect thereof changed my life and continues to do that everyday. “I discovered that I loved being outside taking snapshots with my phone; this led to me purchasing my first DSLR camera in 2015.” Knowing your way around the complexities of a camera is one thing, but to get what you see through the lens to come to life in post-production is another thing altogether. To see an image is just the beginning, to see what it could become, that you can turn it into something special by the end of the process, is a gift not many have. Marina however, has a knack of doing this. “I am not a technical photographer at all but mostly shoot from my heart and current mood.” This is something she encourages for any up and coming photographers. “Take it slow and breathe, it’s ok to be vulnerable, to be scared. Do it anyway. I firmly believe that life starts at the other side of fear.” As far as content for her photography goes, Marina is focusing on floral work, with the clear heart-felt shooting paying dividends. Natural light and colour are the things she aims for most.

See Marina's work here: Marina de Wit

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Robert van der Touw

robert-van-der-touw-aotearoa-artistTHE PASSION IN PATTERN

Robert van der Touw arrived in New Zealand in 1990 after graduating from the School of Natural medicine in Holland. He always had a strong love for the beauty of nature, even as a four year old boy when he used to wander the Dutch forest and steal flowers and plants out of people’s gardens to put in his own. The police were not amused but were very surprised at his age! “Is that Robert van der Touw” one of them laughed as he entered the room! Roger tells us more of his interest in nature and accomplishing his mission.

Shortly after my arrival here I fell in love (literally) with the native forests of New Zealand. As a practitioner of natural medicine, nature was my ‘playing ground’ and New Zealand’s pristine ancient forests could not provide for a better one. I developed a sincere desire to explore all these beautiful ‘new medicines’. As a trained classical homeopath I was lucky. Homeopathy offers effective research methods to let you explore these.

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3D Illustration With An Art Gallery

The Business of Art – John Botton

johnbotton_camera-aotearoa-artistDuring my recent visit to Sydney I popped into one of my favourite hangouts, the Art Gallery of NSW and headed straight down to the photographic exhibitions (why do galleries always bury photography exhibits in the basement?). I was surprised to find a number of pieces by Andreas Gursky, whose name didn’t mean much to me until a few years back when one of his photographs sold for over three million dollars. 

While contemplating the huge print of “Chicago, Mercantile Exchange” (it was estimated to sell for over five hundred thousand Euros), I got to thinking about the first time I presented my photography to the owner of the Red Square Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa. I now cringe at the thought of how naive I was; I just arrived at the gallery without an appointment, my work was very poorly presented and was very higgledy-piggledy to say the least with no structure or cohesive theme. The gallery owner was very polite in rejecting me but it took me ages to come to terms with it. So how do you go from aspiring artist to commercial success? 

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Drew Hill

CONTEMPORARY VIEWPOINT

'Meat on Meat'

Using his camera to tell the stories of those who fall through the cracks, Drew Hill ventures to highlight political, social and cultural injustices and issues. He has been passionate about art from an early age and began by using painting as a medium to express his world view.

Drew loves art history and the biographies on artists - how they lived and worked. In 1999 he graduated from Ilam School of Fine Arts, Canterbury and now draws inspiration from current issues, producing thought provoking images through his recently favoured medium, photography, “...because a picture tells a thousand words and it enables you to capture the perfect moment in time that will never be seen again.”

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Expose Yourself

johnbotton_camera-aotearoa-artistBy John Botton

I’m not sure about you but I always feel a bit self-conscious when exposing myself to other people, especially in public. What I have found over many years though, is that it pays to ensure you are presenting yourself in the best possible light. OK, so maybe you think I’m a bit of a pervert... but what I’m actually talking about is showing my fine art photography (so who has the dirty mind now ;-). 

After labouring long and hard over your masterpiece it’s worth making the effort to present it with the same care and attention you took over its creation. After all, it’s often the packaging that intimates at the value of the artwork; much like a Michelin star chef who presents his fine cuisine, not as yummy food but as a work of culinary art. 

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Ken Clark - Aotearoa Artist

Ken Clark

Ken Clark - aotearoa artist

THE INDIVIDUAL ART OF MOVING IMAGES

Ken Clarke, an intelligently creative cinemetographer has always considered film and television an art form. Here he brings his vision to us, and considering his tremendously varied artistic background, we are privileged to include Ken in our pages, bringing all aspects of art into your home.  Ken tells us his fascinating story.

I have a BFA(Hons) in Film from Canterbury University. I started it in 1980 and didn’t finish until last year. I have spent most of my life up till now working in the film and television industry; first as a make-up artist, then a stop-motion animator where I sculpted puppets and props and then in post-production and digital effects.

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