About Art Photo School
Art Photo School is grounded in practice-led research and material thinking. It treats photography not only as image-making, but as a way of thinking through process, place, and time. Learning happens through doing, reflecting, and sharing.
Art Photo School supports hybrid and expanded practices while maintaining a strong foundation in process, experimentation, and sustained engagement.
We offer:
Pre-recorded courses
Live workshops
Group work and critique calls
Artist talks and technical demonstrations
In-person weekend workshops and 1-1 sessions
An Expanded Approach to Photography
APS primarily supports analogue and experimental photographic processes, including cameraless work and alternative techniques. Its first iteration was called Analogue Photography School but we decided to change it to Art Photo School to reflect a broader understanding of photography as an expanded field.
Contemporary practice often moves between analogue and digital processes: film may be digitised, images reworked, and photographic inquiry extended into sculptural, spatial, or installation-based forms. The emphasis is not on medium purity, but on critical depth, material awareness, and clarity of intention.
Philosophy and Learning Structure
APS is built on the principle that learning happens through making, reflection, and conversation. Rather than following a rigid curriculum, the school supports artists to:
Develop their own visual and conceptual language
Work through uncertainty and experimentation
Build accountability through deadlines and shared critique
Learn how to move from open-ended exploration into resolved projects
The structure mirrors real artistic practice: cycles of research, making, feedback, refinement, and presentation. Technical process, critical thinking, and reflective practice are integrated, creating a learning environment that values curiosity, rigour, and long-term development over quick results.
Meet Kate van der Drift
Kate is the facilitator for APS and a New Zealand-based artist working with cameraless and experimental photographic processes. Her practice is grounded in fieldwork, ecological research, and conceptual approaches to photography that engage with place, material, and environmental systems.
Her work often involves using the environment as both subject and collaborator, including river exposures, plant-based developers, and natural chemical processes to explore histories of land use, ecological damage, and relational ways of making.
Kate’s work has been exhibited in Aotearoa and internationally. In 2025, works from her series Dance Dance were acquired by Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand.
Alongside her studio practice, Kate has taught photography and experimental processes through universities, community programs, workshops, and artist-run initiatives. She is committed to accessible, rigorous, artist-led education.
Some of Kate's Recent Projects:
Installation photograph of Dance Dance
Installation photograph of Listening to a Wet Land
Installation photograph of Soundings
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