In conjunction with the 2025 Fotofest and complement his exhibition at Creative Arts Napier, we bring you a fascinating evening with the man behind the camera.
Murray Savidan’s burning desire was to be a rock musician. His band, The Bluestars, had their first record released in England and their second, a song called Social End Product went on to become a cult classic. But when he was given a camera on his 19th birthday all that changed. Savidan’s reaction to photography was immediate and profound. “I got hooked on it straight away. I felt confident with it. I felt I’d found something.”
He left the band and got a job in an Auckland studio. About a year later he went to London. This move was crucial to his development as a photographer. The London scene was vibrant and influential. Working in this environment provided Savidan with exposure to international standards and techniques that would inform his approach throughout his career. After working as an assistant he started freelancing and following a period working in Madrid he returned to New Zealand. During this time the NZ photography scene was beginning to mature and along with three other photographers he founded the AIPA (Advertising & Illustrative Photography Association). In 1980 he moved to Australia and set up a studio in Sydney. Three years later when he and his wife Christine started a family they decided to move back to New Zealand.
For the rest of the eighties he established himself as one of New Zealand’s leading advertising photographers winning many awards including the Axis Award for Craft Excellence. During this period he also began directing television commercials and in 1990 became a partner in what was to become a successful film production company. After seven years and many international award winning commercials, Murray moved to one of Australasia’s top film production companies in Sydney, shooting assignments all over the world.
After fifteen years in the commercials industry, Murray Savidan made another significant career shift. He stepped back from commercial work and began traveling more extensively, rekindling his passion for street photography that he had explored early in his career. At an age when many professionals might be considering retirement, Savidan was embarking on what would become some of his most significant and personally meaningful work. One of Savidan's projects during this period was his documentation of Auckland's Hero Parade, the city's LGBTQ+ pride celebration. Fascinated by the colour and exuberance of the event, Savidan spent three years photographing the parade. This project resulted in the book "Out There: Portraits of the Hero Parade," published in 2001 with text by renowned New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera.
Despite not being a devotee of social media, Savidan began sharing some of his images on Instagram. The attention generated by these posts caught the eye of Deborah Coddington, a former journalist, writer and bookshop owner who was establishing a publishing company called Ugly Hill Press. Coddington contacted Savidan about producing a book, leading to the creation of "Stop. Look Both Ways," published in 2025. This book represents a definitive collection of Savidan's work, featuring photographs taken from 1967 to 2024 - a span of over 50 years. The book has received critical attention and praise. John Daly-Peoples, in the New Zealand Arts Review writes: “Stop. Look Both Ways provides new ways of seeing . . . he uses these images to create drama, explore history, culture and sexuality which become meditations on society and the individual, but in all of them he captures humanity.”
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