“It’s not really fashionable to talk of storytelling in relation to contemporary art,” writes curator Ariane Craig-Smith. She uses this provocation to guide her selection of work by five students from The University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts.

The works by these emerging talents comprise Still, a new exhibition mounted for the Auckland Photography Festival.

Still dances around the relationship between film and the still image and the stories we seek within a photograph.

Each of the students - Carolin Casey, Mhairi-Clare Fitzpatrick, James Lowe, Geoffrey H. Short and Dane Taylor -presents a variety of approaches to photography working within the digital and physical realms.

“Elam is delighted to once again be associated with the Auckland Photography Festival. This Auckland-wide event attracts broad audiences, and at the George Fraser Gallery they will be introduced to some of the exceptional and original work coming out of the studios at Elam,” says Megan Jenkinson, a lecturer at the School.

Curator Ariane Craig-Smith will give a free, public talk in the gallery at 1:30pm on Wednesday 3 June.

Located in the grounds of Albert Park in Auckland’s city centre, the George Fraser Gallery has been the public exhibiting space of Elam School of Fine Arts since 1993. The George Fraser has played a crucial role over the years offering exhibiting space to emergent artists, some of which today are New Zealand’s finest contemporary practitioners.

Ariane Craig-Smith is an independent curator and writer. Based in Auckland, she was 2007 Curatorial Intern at ARTSPACE and more recently Chartwell Visual Arts Assistant for Auckland Festival 2009. She has an ongoing interest in art as a form of research, and the connections between contemporary art and other disciplines.

Still will be mounted from Thursday 28 May to Saturday 20 June at the George Fraser Gallery (25a Princes Street). The gallery is open Thursday – Saturday, 11am – 4pm. Entry is free. For more information or to join the mailing list visit www.georgefraser.auckland.ac.nz

The University of Auckland’s National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries comprises the School of Architecture and Planning, Elam School of Fine Arts, the Centre for New Zealand Art Research and Discovery (CNZARD), the School of Music and the Dance Studies Programme.