Katikati Photographer Anna Menendez Wins Gold at 2025 NZIPP Iris Awards

Katikati photographer Anna Menendez was left speechless watching the 2025 New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP) Iris Awards on live stream this month, after a judge challenged an initial silver score for one of her entries and talked the panel up to gold. The winning image captured a family being splashed by a wave at Waihi Beach — pure joy and surprise written across their faces in a completely unposed moment.

In total Menendez took home eight awards across the family, nature and landscape categories: a gold, two silvers and a bronze in family; two silvers in nature; and a bronze and silver in landscape. The gold result also named her a finalist for Professional Family Photographer of the Year — her strongest result since she began photographing Katikati and its people in 2018, surpassing six awards in 2024 and three in 2023.

Menendez moved back to her home town of Katikati in 2016 and transitioned from a marketing career into photography. Her journey wasn't without setbacks — Covid-19 wiped out her bookings overnight — but she found renewed purpose during lockdown through the Front Steps project, photographing people on their doorsteps in exchange for food or fundraising donations to the Katikati Community Foodbank. That mahi was later recognised at the NZ Mural Contest in 2022, where images of six community heroes from 2020 were painted on the town's Anglican Church. Many of the families and business owners she met through that project have since become regular clients.

Originally published in Katikati News (Sun Media).