Kate van der Drift (b.1985 Aotearoa, New Zealand) is a contemporary photographer living and working n Aotearoa. She has a particular interest in recording and highlighting the relationship between humankind and our natural habitat through ecological studies of the land using analogue film processes.
In 2022, van der Drift completed her Masters at Elam School of Fine Art. Her masters project ‘Listening to a Wet Land' culminated in a series of large-scale prints made from camera-less 'river exposures' and an essay film. This series set out to explore the ecological complexities of the waters situated in the Hauraki Plains, south of the Coromandel. Each artwork title features the co-ordinates where the large format film was placed into the river, to expose over a period of time.
Van der Drift has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions nationwide. Recent exhibitions include
In the Presence of Absence, Sanderson Contemporary, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland - solo (2024), Tracing Intricacies, Group exhibition, Webbs, Pōneke Wellington; Water Slows As It Rounds The Bend, Auckland Festival of Photography (2023); Susurrations, Women in Photography NZ & AU, Twenty-Six Constable Street, Pōneke Wellington - group (2023); Soundings, Sanderson Contemporary, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland - solo (2023); Listening to a Wet Land, The Arts House Trust, Pah Homestead, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland – solo (2022).
In 2024 Van der Drift won the Highly Commended Award in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards and was named the Auckland Council Artist in Residence at Waitawa Regional Park. She is the winner of the Uxbridge Malcolm Smith Gallery Art and Ecology Award (2020) and the Stoneleigh New Zealand Artist Grant (2018).
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