A 12 month project exploring beekeepers in their working and personal environments across Canterbury, New Zealand.
Beekeepers is a documentary photography project made in Canterbury, New Zealand in 2021. The work focuses on people who keep and care for honeybee colonies, photographed both at their hives and within their personal environments. Through time spent with beekeepers across a range of scales — from hobbyists to commercial operators — the project observes a culture shaped by responsibility, routine, and long-term care.
Alongside the labour of beekeeping, the work attends to moments of stillness, rest, and familiarity, recognising these spaces as integral to sustaining the work itself. The relationship between beekeeper, bee, and environment is central, shaped by seasonal cycles and continual attention.
The project was produced as a series of photographic prints and a 200-plus-page book, submitted as my final-year work at ARA Christchurch, where it received an A+ grade and the Noeline McIlroy Bequest Award for academic excellence in photography.
