Simon Cartwright Named Master of Photography, with Distinction by NZIPP
On Sunday evening, I stood in a room in Christchurch and heard my name called for Master of Photography, with Distinction. It's a significant accreditation from the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography, and after ten years running Simon Cartwright Photography across Hawke's Bay, Taupo, and the wider North Island, it's a moment I want to properly mark, not just quietly add to a credentials page.
The 2026 NZIPP Iris Awards bring together the country's best professional photographers each year to have their work judged by a room of their peers. It's not a popularity contest and it's not about who shoots the most weddings or the flashiest campaign. Every entry is scored on technical skill, creative vision, and craft, by working photographers who know exactly what goes into getting a shot right.
It's also worth explaining what a distinction like this actually represents, because it's not something you can walk in and win in a single night. NZIPP Distinctions are built on merit points accumulated year on year through the Iris Awards, and only NZIPP Accredited members are even eligible to earn one. Each year, only your ten highest scoring entries count towards the total, so it genuinely rewards consistency across a body of work rather than a single strong image. Coming away with Master of Photography (with Distinction), MNZIPP (Dist.), means that consistency has now been judged against the very best in New Zealand, over several years, and held up. There's still further to climb too, Grand Master of Photography and its bars sit above this level, and that's very much the next thing I'm working towards.
What actually happened at the Iris Awards
Alongside the accreditation itself, my entries across Creative Portrait, Landscape, Documentary, and Travel categories picked up a genuinely pleasing haul: a Gold Award, a Silver with Distinction, three further Silver Awards, and five Bronze Awards. Each entry gets scored individually, so this wasn't one strong image carrying the day. It was a spread of work across different genres, all landing above the bar NZIPP sets for professional recognition.
This builds on a run of results across the past several years too, including Silver with Distinction, Silver, and Bronze awards at the 2024 and 2025 Iris Awards, and a finalist placing for NZ Travel Photographer of the Year in 2025. It also sits on top of an accreditation journey that started with NZIPP Professional Commercial Photographer Accreditation in 2022, then Associate Distinction (ANZIPP) in 2024. None of this happens in isolation. It's the accumulation of a decade of paying close attention to light, composition, and story, and refusing to let a shoot go out the door unless it's actually right.
The awards themselves were announced at the Gala Awards Evening in Christchurch on Sunday night, 9 August, a Golden Hour themed night at the Majestic on Durham that wraps up a week of live judging in front of a room of peers. There's no hiding behind a good brief, a forgiving client or family and friends ‘liking’ your work on that stage. The images stand or fall on their own.
Why this accreditation matters for clients
Here's the practical bit. NZIPP accreditation isn't a badge you buy or a title you can claim for yourself. It's assessed by your peers and genuinely hard to earn. For a business owner in Hawke's Bay, Taupo, or anywhere across the North Island choosing a photographer for a corporate headshot session, an architectural project, or an important event, that distinction is a signal you can actually rely on. It means the person behind the camera has been tested by working professionals who know exactly what good work looks like, not just judged on a good portfolio website.
I've always believed photography is a craft worth taking seriously. That's not about the gear, a smartphone has a camera too, it's about how you use it. I once picked up an Iris Award using an image shot on an iPhone, so I'm the last person to dismiss the tools people carry in their pocket. What matters is the eye behind the lens and the judgement to know when a shot is actually right. This result is the clearest external confirmation of that I could ask for. It doesn't change how I approach a brief tomorrow, but it does mean when I tell a client I'll bring the right eye and the right technical care to their project, there's now a national accreditation and award-winning ability standing behind that promise.
What's next
I'll be updating the accreditation on the website and across my usual channels over the coming weeks, but the real value of this isn't a line on a credentials page. It's what it means for the work I do for businesses across Hawke's Bay, Taupo, and the wider North Island week to week: architecture and interiors, corporate portraits, events, and the industrial and infrastructure projects that make up a good chunk of my client base. The standard doesn't change. It's just now got a name attached to it.
If you've got a project or event coming up and want a photographer who takes the craft seriously, I'd love to chat about what that could look like for your business. Get in touch anytime.
