Bought up on a farm at Ngatea on the Hauraki Plains, Spid started taking the family photographs when he was 8 years old because his mum always pressed the shutter so hard the camera dipped and when the photos came back everyone’s heads had been cut off. He put the money from his first after-school job into buying an SLR camera and his career path was set.

Spid was largely self-taught until he arrived in London in 1992 and attended the Drill Hall Art School. When he returned to New Zealand he won a study grant from the Ronald Woolf Memorial Trust, which he used to study graphic and photographic design.

He has that incredible skill of drawing the viewer into his work through design and he has spent years perfecting his craft. In his personal work, Spid is always seeking something different. He loves those theatrical subjects and life’s classic moments. This is his true passion: life’s theatre.

Along the way, he has been selected from thousands of submissions by photographers worldwide for the next Lürzer’s Archive 2020/2021 edition. Spid has created stunning images for companies and produced exquisite art prints that grace the walls of many happy customers.

Spid Pye works at Gallery Te Puna include limited edition photographic prints from his ‘Fading Sexual Currency’ series.