Let me assure you first that my reason for writing about Robin Hammond’s wonderful book has nothing to do with the false alarm and evacuation in Auckland today.
I know my Kiwi friends will want to beat me up for joking that New Zealand is the same as Australia(I know they are different) but in comparison, relatively less have been written about NZ photographers and there are many many good ones around. For instance, Brian Blake, a New Zealander was the first in that part of the world to join Magnum. I would like to count filmmaker Jane Campion too.
I first noticed Hammond’s works when he won the W. Eugene Smith award and was glad to see that he also won a major award that allowed him to release this body of works that taken up a big chunk of his time. I am also looking forward to my copy of his new book Condemned.
A lot of talks these days about photojournalism and documentary tend to focus on style style and more style, so in this aspect, Hammond is going to be unfairly penalized by some shallow critics for being too similar to the established gods of the business.
I will encourage readers to just focus on the substances he has presented.
Lastly, I have to apologize for occasionally confusing Hammond with Aussie photographer Daniel Berehulak, another shooter that I enjoy following.
Going to place my money down that one of these two, if not both, will be snapped up by a major agency soon.
