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All aboard please — commercial and documentary photography by Grant Maiden, Wellington, New Zealand.

Posts tagged academic photography

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I recently had the pleasure of capturing portraits for the Royal Society Te Apārangi, showcasing more clever individuals in the field of science—a job I really enjoy. On this occasion, my focus was on photographing the recipients of the MBIE Science Whitinga Fellowships- aimed at assisting early career researchers.

First up I headed to Waikato to photograph two of the recipients, Dr Paul Brown and Dr Mahroni Owen.

Dr. Owen’s research revolves around the development of a mind-controlled machine—an innovative prosthetic hand that has the potential to significantly enhance the lives of individuals grappling with nervous disorders or amputations. Mahroni says that ‘ Māori and Pasifika are overrepresented in nervous system disorders and diabetes, which leads to lower limb amputation, and I specifically look within my own iwi and te ao Māori for opportunities to help.’

Dr Paul Browns research is based around statistical modelling.

“My Whitinga research is a space time model of certain crimes that are related to one another. With residential burglaries, for instance, there’s a lot of literature on what’s called the ‘near repeat victimisation phenomenon’. Basically, if one place gets hit in a burglary, it’s likely that it will soon be hit again, or surrounding houses and neighbourhoods will be.

These kind of models are used overseas, but can lead to problems with over surveillance of certain communities. I hope that the models we’re developing here can avoid the perpetuation of systemic biases, and are used for insights into crime patterns and developing different policing strategies that are more positive in the community”.

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Next it was down to the Nelson region to photograph Dr Rebecca Campbell. Her research is about plant disease, particularly European canker in apple, Myrtle rust in Myrtaceae plants, and Xylella fastidiosa.

“My particular focus is the spread of the disease in a spatial area, combining fieldwork, lab work and modelling. You get a lot of understanding from following the process from the ground up – from data collection, to validating and building the models.

And lastly back to Wellington to photograph political scientist Dr Sam Crawley.

Here’s his take on his research project….’My research looks at whether people think climate change is more or less important relative to other things. So, whether issues like health care, education (for people with children), the economy, job security, and the cost of living are more immediate to people than climate change, and what this might mean when it’s time to vote.’

It’s always fascinating to photograph scientists and to get a glimpse into the work that they undertake. These two shoots for Te Herenga Waka Victoria Universities magazine were no different.

The first is Dr Farah Lamiable-Ouladi and her team from Victoria Universities Ferrier Research Institute who are studying Krabbe Disease, ‘a devastating neurogenerative disorder that causes death within the first two years of life’.

And the second is for a story about the universities support of Maori and Pasifika students in STEM subjects (Science,Technology,Engineering,Mathematics)- featuring physics post grad students Tane Butler and Gabriel Bioletti .

Wonderful to see this book I worked on throughout last year, ‘Ngā Kete Mātauranga’ launched this week and in bookstores now.

From Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland to Waihōpai/ Invercargill I travelled around Aotearoa and photographed twenty four Māori academics in locations that had a personal connection for each of them. It was a highly enjoyable project to work on and great to meet and photograph so many people with considerable mana and knowledge.

Professor Juliet A. Gerrard, the Prime Ministers Chief Science Advisor describes the book thus: ‘These deeply personal stories provide a portal into the te ao Māori world, which many outside it seek to understand, but struggle to find a frame in which to do so. The abstract concept of decolonising the tertiary workforce is brought to life and given meaning by these kōrero of strength, where the authors display courage and vision from within an environment so often hostile to Indigenous ways of knowing’.

The book is edited by Jacinta Ruru and Linda Waimare Nikora and published by Otago University Press with the assistance of the Royal Society Te Apārangi and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence.