Fay Looney

Fay Looney has enjoyed a long and successful career as a professional photographer, shooting portrait, wedding, sport and school photography. Fay is best known for her photographs of New Zealand, often featured in her many published books, with sales of over 60,000 books since 1999. Fay was also the first female president of the New Zealand Institu... te of Professional Photography (NZIPP) paving the way for many women to follow. Now in her late 70s and responding to the changes in New Zealands publishing landscape, the physical challenges of producing new work and the loss of her husband Harry after 57 years of marriage, Fay produced a new plan. Fays purpose-built garden studio has morphed into Koru on Koru Gallery, in Oakura, just outside New Plymouth. This new and exciting venture offers free space to local and visiting artists, while at the same time celebrating her own work and publications. Koru on Koru will become Fays main focus now while still continuing to shoot New Zealand landscapes and the people within, concentrating on the unique characters of our art community. Fay celebrated on the gallerys opening day with the Highway 45 Dancers performing a beautifully choreographed display in her front paddock. This direction was hardly surprising, as Fay was a founding member of the Oakura Arts Trail, an annual exhibition of local art within her own community held during the Taranaki Garden Festival. In 2014 My Front Paddock became the brand for the Taranaki Fringe Garden Festival as a place of interest launched under the banner Art Grazing. Sculpture, large acrylic images and stone carvings replaced grazing cattle in Fays front paddock over the festival week, while the Gallery enjoyed hundreds of visitors. This continued in the 2015 Festival. Permanent works found a place in Fays garden, such as Shannon Novaks Medley installation, Richard Landers glass sculptures, and Jimi Walsh paddles. In the 2016 Taranaki Garden Festival, her exhibition included visiting artists Delicia Sampero (Titirangi) and Erhard and ...Read More