NZ Pictorial

Southern Exposure presents an original, democratic view of New Zealand. Chosen from 25,000 images shot by more than 1500 photographers over a calendar year, the images in this book represent the best of the New Zealand Geographic group on Flickr-a social media community dedicated to capturing the spirit of the nation. The photographs were not commissioned, rather 'crowd-sourced' by enthusiastic amateurs going about their business, celebrating family life, recording the play of light upon a subject that was before them, in the own time, in their own way. The images were uploaded to 'the cloud' and voted on by friends who had never met, then ultimately rendered in a technology almost six hundred years old; printed with ink on paper. This apparently retrograde output format underscores the ongoing affection of readers for the experience of print media, and the kudos it confers upon even the most technologically literate photographers. It is also a dramatic demonstration of the faceted view of a country made possible with social media communities covering a subject from many perspectives and yet contributing to a common product shaped entirely by their work.