Manawatū agriculture worker wins photography prize with image taken on phone

Josh Gray's viticulture photo won the first weekly award in BASF's photo competition. Photo / Josh Gray

A Feilding-based young agricultural professional’s iPhone photo has won the first award in a new photo competition.

BASF NZ, a branch of Germany-based BASF, the world’s largest chemical producer, invited farmers, growers and others involved in agriculture to submit photos that “reflect their love of farming” for the inaugural Biggest AgriPhoto Competition.

Five winners were selected from 150 entries; four for the best photo of the week and one grand prize.

Feilding’s Josh Gray won the first weekly award for his photo, taken at the Babich Wines vineyard in Waihopai Valley.

“It was taken when I was working down in Marlborough during my university holiday,” he said.

“I think I might have been crop forecasting, and I saw a good opportunity to take a picture of what I was up to.”

Gray had not engaged with photography before and said his winning photo was relatively amateur.

“That was just taken on iPhone, so I felt a bit bloody guilty about winning it [over] some of the other entrants,” he said.

Feilding agriculture worker Josh Gray won an iPad through BASF's new Biggest AgriPhoto Competition.

“I haven’t really won much before, so it was a big surprise.”

The judges said the photo captured the precision and complexity of modern agricultural practices and displayed Gray’s understanding of farming as both a science and an art.

Gray works as a technical field officer with Farmlands but will travel in Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom in 2025.

He plans to get a job in agriculture in the UK and will remain working in the sector in the future: “It’s all I see myself doing, really.”

Gray and the three other weekly winners – Janelle Imeson from Poroti, Wessel de Lange from Blenheim, and Peter Hewson from Timaru – each won a 10.9-inch Apple iPad.

Grand prize winner Carl Gundersen, of Taradale, received a DJI Air 3 4K drone for his photo of a worker at the Te Mata Estate winery.

BASF Agricultural Solutions Australia and New Zealand head Parvana Wali said the entries “highlighted not just the beauty of New Zealand’s landscapes but the dedication and passion of its farming communities”.

“It’s been an amazing first year for the competition, and we’re excited to see how this platform will continue to celebrate and connect the people at the heart of Kiwi agriculture.”

Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.