Niki Boon, Jump, Summer, 2015

Obscura Gallery proudly presents our Summer exhibition with New Zealand photographer Niki Boon and her first solo exhibition in the United States debuting photographs which document her family’s rural, home-schooled life in Marlborough, New Zealand. While our U.S. Summertime is New Zealand’s Wintertime, we can bask in the imagery that Boon has taken during the warm months in New Zealand while the children pursue an alternative education and lifestyle in a natural environment on top of the East coast of the South island of New Zealand.

Niki Boon, Her Backyard, 2016

Boon’s photographic work was born from her intense desire to document her family’s lifestyle that the country environment has nurtured. A mother of four, Niki shares her family’s rural life with camera wizardry that utilizes motion, incredible perspective, and depth of field, as well as a style that bears influence from those of Jock Sturges and Sally Mann but exudes her own distinction using a wide-angle, sometimes close-up lens and ground-perspective imagery. Boon refers to her work as “turning your beautiful ordinary into art.” Drawn to black and white photography, Boon expertly controls the natural lighting of her environment, making use of shadows and the position of the sun to frame her children in whatever play they are found in that day.

Niki Boon, The Bath, 2016

Black and white enables me to see light differently. Rather than focusing on colors, I find I focus more on the direction and quality of light. I just find the interaction between light and shadow more interesting to focus on than color relationships.

Niki Boon, Ice Block, 2015

Click here to view more of Niki Boon’s work.

Click here to download the full Press Release.