Ms Julia Durkin, MNZM, for services to photography
Julia Durkin is the founder and director of the annual Auckland Festival of Photography, the longest-running photography festival in Australasia. The 2019 Festival saw 106 exhibitions, events and talks reach an audience of around 93,000 across the Auckland region. She initiated Auckland Photo Day, the Auckland Photo Blog, the Annual Commission for Fine Arts Photography and Manukau Light Night, an exhibition of photographic works projected onto buildings. She created Auckland’s first evening gallery circuit, the Festival Tuesday Circuit. She initiated New Zealand’s first photography symposium on climate change. Ms Durkin played a key role in Auckland becoming a founding member of the Asia Pacific Photoforum.