Congratulations are well deserved for Karen Moffatt-McLeod, Whitianga photographer for her submission to From The Pit being selected for the New Zealand Music Month exhibition.
Since its inception in 2019, From The Pit has served as an annual premier exhibition, dedicated to celebrating the craft of live music photography across New Zealand. The exhibition takes place in New Zealand Music Month which is May.
This year’s exhibition presents curated photographs from 58 talented photographers, who have captured the raw, unforgettable moments of New Zealand musicians in their element. Karen was one of those selected.
Karen Moffatt McLeod with her winning submission
(Taken by Lia Priemus, of Priemus Photography, Whitianga.)
She submitted some images to From The Pit and one of the images of Andrew Fagan taken at his show in Whitianga at The Monkey House was selected by the ‘From the Pit’ and Auckland Live people to be displayed in the Light Boxes in Auckland’s Karanga Plaza, Wynyard Quarter as part of NZ Music Month celebrations.
The Light Boxes are an evocative collection and create a powerful intersection of music and photographs in Te Komititanga and Karanga Place in the centre of Auckland. Spending time gazing at the images is an experience of stepping inside the electric energy of Aotearoa’s vibrant live music scene. It is wonderful and a credit to Molly and Kaspur, Managers of The Monkey House, that they often organise and host music artists from the big city and from all over New Zealand, at their venue in Whitianga. This connects the Coromandel Peninsula to a much wider network of music and encourages our local artists.
Karen went to Auckland this last week to take a look at the exhibition and while she was there, another local photographer, Lia Piemus, took this photo of Karen on-site with her submission of Andrew Fagan.
Music photography captures an artist at a once in a life time moment. The artist is performing live – not posing for a photo but giving out of themselves through their voice, their instrument, their passion. The photo captures the essence of the artist’s emotion in that moment. It is a moment that only happens once and it is captured by the photographer to live on.
“Now in its eighth year, From The Pit has become an important archive of our vibrant local music scene. From the Pit wishes to say a massive thanks to all the photographers who submitted their work for inclusion in this year’s exhibition and to all the artist features in this year’s exhibition.” Copyright to all images remains with each photographer.
The major sponsors of From The Pit are Sony, Audioculture, Agent X, Auckland Council Events, New Zealand Music Commission, IMINZ, Auckland Live.
