Conversations with New Zealand Photographers - Johanna Mechen
Hi, I’m Andy Spain, a commercial photographer and artist from Wellington, I interview photographic artists from Aotearoa / New Zealand. If you want to check out my work go to andyspain.nz and follow me on instagram at andyspain_photography.
Last week I spoke to Johanna Mechen.
I was first introduced to the work of Johanna at the excellent Slow Burn exhibition at Te Papa.
In a sea of photography and photographers, much of which I was familiar with, her moving image piece really caught my eye and left me a bit teary eyed.
The piece of work she was showing was Last Skye Boat Song, a mediative piece, based in the Hutt, with a domestic feel of suburban gardens and paddling pools, filmed in a carefully crafted and slow way.
The piece doesn’t give too much away but hints at changes coming across a family, new horizons, climate change, described as an essay film, a mediatation on motherhood.
Johanna speaks of the lyrics (Bonnie Prince Charlie evading capture dressed as a women), in reference to her Childs gender transition, her own menopause and the idea of it being the last lullaby she sang to her children before they were too old. All with the backdrop of covid. It’s full of Symbolism and her work is long form, taking years to produce, allowing that symbolism to show itself and rise to the top.
It’s part of the Te Papa collection and if you can get to Slow Burn before it closes I highly recommend it.
Johanna completed the work as part of her PHD at Massey University where she teaches.
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11 Aug 2026
Conversations with New Zealand Photographers - Freya Copeland
Welcome to Conversations with New Zealand Photographers. I’m Andy Spain, a photographer from Wellington Aotearoa / New Zealand. I work with architects and others in that area photographing completed projects in the urban environment.
I’m Still buzzing from meeting so many interesting people over the last week at photobook NZ and the Tracy Moffat talk as part of the Peter Turner memorial lecture at Te Papa. Thanks so much for the good folk at Massey and Photoforum who work so hard putting it together.
Today I'm delighted to be joined by photographer Freya Copeland. Freya is based in Valencia but is originally from New Zealand after moving here from the UK in here toddler years.
She came here as part of a trip home to see family and to come to the Photobook NZ events in Wellington where she sold the books she makes (some of whom are authored by her) as part of her role as the joint owner of Replika Publishing.
Her work is very much about dislocation and finding a place in the world, some of which has involved the trauma of being stuck in some devastating floods in Valencia which resulted in her book Fang. It’s a horrific re-telling of her inner most fears whilst waiting for the water to sweep her away and watching others who ultimately weren’t as fortunate as her. She is as much a bookmaker as a photographer and creates stunning handcrafted tactile works to hold the imagery she takes. She loves playing with analogue processes and printing, as likely to use coffee to develop as a chemical developer. She likes to experiment and play with her images and books.
You can see Freya’s work at replikapublishing.org (replikapublishing.org) and her own website freyacopeland.com (http://freyacopeland.com/)
So grab a coffee, settle in, and please enjoy my conversation with Freya Copeland.
Thanks
Andy Spain
Architectural Photogrpahy
www.andyspain.nz (www.andyspain.nz)
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10 Aug 2026
Conversations with New Zealand Photographers - Erin Lee
Welcome to Conversations with New Zealand Photographers. My name's Andy Spain. I'm an architectural photographer based in based in Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand. I work with architects and developers and construction companies and lots of other people involved in the architecture sector, photographing finished projects and the urban environment in general. This last weekend's been a great weekend in Te whanganui a tara Wellington with the Photo Book New Zealand Festival taking place, where people from all over the world have come to show photo books and meet up with photographers that you don't often get the chance to speak to. I had the opportunity to meet with two photographers to record a podcast, and the first one I'm dropping is the one with Erin Lee Photography, who has produced two incredible books that caught my eye at the festival. One was The Crimson Thread, and the other one was Legal Fiction. Both of them investigate the ongoing effects of colonization in Australia. She's originally from Rangiora in Otautahi Christchurch, but she moved to Australia. And they're just such beautiful books, full of depth and content and intelligence. she gave a talk as part of the festival, and I spoke to her after that. So, do like and subscribe and tell people to listen and check out ErinLeePhotography.com and AndySpain.nz, and follow us on Instagram, and I hope you enjoy this conversation which I recorded this morning on the 10th of August at Te Matapehi in Wellington. Thanks. Bye.
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