UCOL Te Pūkenga photography lecturer Paul Gummer receives top industry honour

UCOL photography senior lecturer Paul Gummer speaks after receiving the Silver Spool Award at the Iris Awards gala dinner in Christchurch.

UCOL Te Pūkenga photography students won 29 awards at the 2023 New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography Iris Awards.

The Iris Awards are New Zealand’s premier annual photography awards and attract professional and student photographers from around the country.

UCOL students took home one gold, two silvers with distinction, 11 silvers, 11 bronzes, and four professional standard awards.

Photography senior lecturer Paul Gummer received the Silver Spool Award for service to the photography industry.

Gummer first attended the Iris Awards in 1998 and has only missed the event three times in the past 25 years. He has been a mainstay in helping UCOL students set up their entries, guiding them through the judging process, and offering support and advice to up-and-coming photographers.

“We have used these awards as a centrepiece to our photography programmes to introduce students to the professional world and at the same time give them an opportunity to shine.”

Gummer got his start as a photographer in the late 1980s, photographing for architects and architectural magazines in and around London.

“I had spent over a decade working as a laboratory technician in science and medical research but had no passion for it. I started a photography course with no intention of doing more than a few weeks but I got hooked from the outset and have never looked back.”

His first professional job was for the English magazine Country Life, which features expensive country houses.

“The squire of the mansion even brought me sherry on a silver tray. My second job for the magazine was to shoot antique tennis gear, which included photographing the first-ever tennis racket at Wimbledon.”

Gummer and his family moved to New Zealand in 1997, and he started teaching at UCOL the following year.

Some of his most memorable moments from the Iris Awards are introducing learners to their photographic heroes, who themselves are UCOL graduates.

“Our students have won the New Zealand Student Photographer of the Year 15 times in the 25 years we have been attending. That only happens with a huge amount of hard work by students and staff.”