I have worked as a press photographer for nearly 30 years and starting at The Waikato Times before beginning head-hunted at The New Zealand Herald.

Travelling the world I ended up working in Fleet St for a number of years and was employed by a news agency that serviced the biggest papers in the UK. On my return to New Zealand, the Herald offered me a position staffing their Bay of Plenty regional office which frequently saw me travelling the rural backroads. 

I quickly realised I was happiest in the rural heartland, amongst its rugged landscapes and salt-of-the-earth characters.

I have deep-seated a passion for New Zealand and the rural heartland of this country and its people, as I have shared the same lifestyle and understand their lives. I believe that this visual story should be shared with the world, about how we care for this land and work with it to produce the best food and fibre on earth. I absolutely believe it is up to us to get out there and tell that story on our terms in an authentic manner.

I want to be part of that storytelling. It is something I believe I do well and that I have a genuine passion for.

I have been the Press Photographer of the Year title 6 times (Junior & Senior) which is something no one else has achieved to date.

I was introduced to the world of photography by my father. As a youngster, my father left boarding school in Taranaki and joined the Taranaki Daily News instead of returning to our family farm. During his time in the media, he was lucky enough to work alongside some of the best in the industry for several years and remained lifelong friends.

I remember both my father and his former colleagues helped me see the beauty in New Zealand’s rural landscape and it ignited my passion to record it. Having begun my journey with photography in a farming community it is little wonder that it remains my favourite subject matter.

This gorgeous collection of photographs, accompanied by extended captions and insightful interviews, is a visual celebration of the New Zealand farmer and the landscape in which they live and work.

It tells the stories of the people who are the backbone of farming in Aotearoa New Zealand — people who love this land and love what they do with it. Alan Gibson, a much-awarded photojournalist, was raised on a remote hill country farm. Ever since picking up his first camera as a child, he has wanted to record the people he grew up around and the world they inhabit. He knew the subject of this book intimately; he just had to find the right people to tell the New Zealand farming story.

Alan has been awarded the NZ Press Photographer of the Year title six times (Junior & Senior) in the annual media awards. No one has matched that feat.

Available at all good bookstores nationwide.