About

Welcome to Photo Quest NZ

Welcome. I’ve developed this site as a digital archive and shop for those who resonate with the unconventional side of my photography. What started as a simple request from family and friends to purchase my images has evolved into a wider exploration of how we perceive the landscapes of Otago, Southland, and Fiordland.

I am driven by a desire to create images that elicit an immediate emotional response. For the past three years, I have been focusing (intentional pun intended) on the Unconventionality of the South. This is a project of re-imagining and re-imaging—taking the familiar, dramatic geography of our region and finding the “wacky,” the surreal, and the unexpected within the frame.

My visual language began with an Eastman Kodak Folding Brownie Six-20. Though this was a long time ago, that camera remains my ultimate teacher of simplicity.

Folding Brownie Six-2

Produced between 1937 and 1940, it was an elegantly basic machine. With a fixed-focus Meniscus lens and a rudimentary Kodette II shutter, it gave the photographer very few options for aperture or shutter speed. It forced me to see the light, not the settings.

While my technology has evolved, my philosophy remains rooted in that early simplicity. I still choose my equipment for its ability to capture the atmosphere without interference.

Beyond the lens, my life is deeply tethered to the land I photograph. I am a committed conservationist—recently serving on the Otago Conservation Board—as well as a lifelong tramper and cross-country skier. I work year-round at the Snow Farm, a landscape that constantly informs my eye. This site is a culmination of that perspective: a blend of conservation, exploration, and a deliberate refusal to photograph the world exactly as it is.

I invite you to explore.

Cheers,

Donald

Direct Email: images@photoquest.nz