Congratulations to photography lecturer, Allan McDonald who has won the New Zealand Photobook of the Year Award for his publication Carbon Empire (Rim Books).
The Photobook Awards celebrate excellence and innovation in photobook creation, and aim to showcase the work of antipodean photo artists to local and international audiences.
Carbon Empire works in the space between art and documentary photography. Allan says his book is a “small, experimental, zine-style publication”, and is a reflection on the effects of the deregulation of the New Zealand petroleum sector in 1998 and the subsequent demise of many small operators.
It combines a short series of staged photographs of a ‘man in the street’ made in 1997 with images of 
closed petrol stations photographed between 2003 and 2017. Carbon Empire is a juxtaposition of these two series of photographs and a single image, made by chance in 2002.
When he’s not working at Unitec, Allan runs his own practice as a documentary photographer with a deep interest in industrial and urban landscapes. He believes that “it’s good for students to see their teachers out there practising and then passing on that experience that’s only gained by first-hand encounters”.
Allan believes there will always be a future for photobooks and art books in general, saying that ‘they provide us with a material artefact which are very much part of art and cultural production”.
One of the finalists in the competition, Yvonne Shaw, who published the photobook Retrograde Motion with Tim Mackrell, is a Unitec photography graduate and former student of Allan’s.
Coming up: Allan is curating an exhibition as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography. He’ll also be convening a panel discussion with Unitec lecturers William Bardebes, Nina Seja, and others. The exhibition runs from 24 May to 13 June.
Congratulations Allan!
Antoinette