Fiona Pardington was born Fiona Dorothy Cameron in 1961 in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand and is of Scottish (Clan Cameron of Erracht) and Maori (Kai Tahu, Kati Mamoe) descent. In 1984 she graduated from the University of Auckland School of Fine Arts with a Bachelors Degree specialising in Photography and since that time has established herself at the forefront of a generation of New Zealand artists using photography as their principal medium. She graduated with an MFA (1st class honours) in Photography in 2003

Fiona Pardington’s fields of investigation have been psychoanalysis, medicine, voyeurism, memory and the body, the history of the photographic image and the nature of the relationship between the photographer and subject, particularly as it relates to sexual difference, through the ambiguities of a simultaneous solicitation and resistance. She is best known as a specialist in ‘pure’ or analogue photographic darkroom technique, most notably hand printing and toning.

Most recently her photographs have returned to the formality of the photographic still life, particularly in relationship to whakapapa and surrounding issues of immanence, exploring the continuum of whakapapa, taonga as embodiment and ‘absolute access’ to tipuna, researching especially in relation to moko mokai, which the photographic portrait has replaced as the contemporary site of both mourning and memory for Maori.
- Jonathan Smart Gallery

1984 - Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree (Photography) School of Fine Arts, Auckland University, New Zealand.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2006 - Southern Maori Rock Art, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch
2005 - Without you, McNamara Gallery, Wanganui, NZ
2005 - Eight Shells, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
2004 - New work, Bartley Nees Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
2003 - Revelation/ Whakakitenga, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch and McNamara Gallery, Wanganui, New Zealand.
2003 - Te Tohua, Te Orongonui Bartley Nees Gallery, Wellington, NZ
2002 - Mauri Mai/ Tono Ano, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, NZ and Snowhite Gallery, Unitec, Auckland, NZ.
2001 - One Night of Love, Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton, NZ
1997 - Proud Flesh, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
1996 - There's No Right Way to Do Me Wrong, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland,
1995 - Unprotected, Jensen Gallery, Wellington, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand
1994 - Tainted Love, Sue Crockford Gallery Auckland, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
1993 - His Vile Fancy, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
1993 - Rising to the Blow, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland.
1990 - The Journey of the Sensualist, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland.
1989 - Night of the Senses, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland and Southern Cross Gallery, New Zealand
Selected Group Exhibitions
2006 - Within Memory: Aspects of New Zealand documentary photography 1960- 2000 - Wellington, New Zealand.
2006 - Contemporary New Zealand Photographers, Pataka's NZ International Arts, Festival programme, Wellington, New Zealand
2003 - Pressing Flesh, Skin, Touch, Intimacy, Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki, Auckland, NZ
2003 - Te Puawai O Ngai Tahu, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, NZ
2002 - Slow Release: Recent Photography from New Zealand, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia and Adam Gallery, Victoria University
Wellington
2001 - Prospect 2001 New Art New Zealand, City Gallery, Wellington, NZ
2001 - Purangiaho: Seeing Clearly, Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki, Auckland
2001 - Friends of the Family: The Bieringa Collection, Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, NZ
2001 - Au Kaha Kia Kaha ; Strengthening the Bindings of the Earth, of the People, of the Soul, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, NZ
2001 - Rukutia!Rukutia! Southern Maori Art Te Waipounamu House, Christchurch, NZ
2001 - 20 Key Works from the Paris Family Collection, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, NZ
2000 - Haumi E! Hui E! Taiki E! A Ngai Tahu Visual Arts Exhibition, The Annex, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, NZ
1999 - Tino Rakatirataka Kai Tahu, Christchurch Polytechnic, Christchurch, New Zealand
1999 - Sharp And Shiny: Fetishism In Contemporary New Zealand Art, Govett- Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, NZ
1995 - Cultural Safety, Aktuelle Kunst Aus Neuseeland, Frankfurter Kunstverein and the Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany.
1994 - Te Hono O Nga Motu Rua/ The Joining of the Two Islands, Te Taumata Gallery, Auckland, NZ
1994 - One Hundred and Fifty Ways of Loving, Artspace, Auckland, NZ
1994 - Station to Station: the Way of the Cross, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, NZ
1993 - Alter/ Image: Feminism and Representation in New Zealand Art, 1973- 1993, City Gallery Wellington and Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland NZ
1993 - Suffer: Suffering in the Nineties, Teststrip Gallery Auckland and Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, NZ
1992 - Implicated and Immune: Artists Respond to HIV/ Aids Crisis, Fisher Gallery, Auckland, NZ
1990 - Now, See, Hear! Art, Language and Translation, Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington, NZ
1990 - Constructed Intimacies, Moet and Chandon New Zealand Art Foundation Touring Exhibition
1989 - Imposing Narratives: Beyond the Documentary in Recent New Zealand Photography, Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington, NZ

Biography
Fiona Pardington was born Fiona Dorothy Cameron in 1961 in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand and is of Scottish (Clan Cameron of Erracht) and Maori (Kai Tahu, Kati Mamoe) descent. In 1984 she graduated from the University of Auckland School of Fine Arts with a Batchelors Degree specialising in Photography. She graduated with an MFA (1st class honours) in Photography in 2003. Fiona began her doctorate in 2006.
Fiona Pardington’s fields of investigation have been psychoanalysis, medicine, voyeurism, memory and the body, the history of the photographic image and the nature of the relationship between the photographer and subject, particularly as it relates to sexual difference, through the ambiguities of a simultaneous solicitation and resistance. She is best known as a specialist in ‘pure’ or analogue photographic darkroom technique, most notably hand printing and toning.
Most recently her photographs have returned to the formality of the photographic still life, particularly in relationship to whakapapa and surrounding issues of immanence, exploring the continuum of whakapapa, taonga as embodiment and ‘absolute access’ to tipuna, researching especially in relation to moko mokai, which the photographic portrait has replaced as the contemporary site of both mourning and memory for Maori.
Pardington has exhibited widely in New Zealand and spent a year in France in 1991-92 as a Moet & Chandon Fellow. In 1989 she received an Arts Council Direct Assistance Grant. In 1995 she was a recipient of an Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Fellowship, and was one of seven artists included in the prestigious 'Cultural Safety' exhibition in Frankfurt, and Aachen, Germany. She was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow for both 1996 and 1997, and was awarded the 1997 Visa Gold Art Award.
'Purangiaho: Seeing Clearly’, a 2002 exhibition in the Auckland Art Gallery introduced a suite of her large format black and white still life photographs of Kai Tahu taonga, 'Mauria mai / Tono ano, Bringing to light / Claiming again', made during her time as Artist in Residence at Unitec in 2001.
‘One night of love', a photographic installation co-curated with writer Kyla McFarlane, initiated and exhibited by the Waikato Museum of Art and History, opened October 2001. In April 2003 Fiona was one of the principal artists in ‘Te Puawai o Ngai Tahu, an exhibition celebrating the achievements of contemporary Ngai Tahu artists.
Fiona exhibited in both Public/Private, Tumatanui/Tumataiti, the 2nd Auckland Biennial and the Arts and Industry Urban Biennial in 2004, as well as Ka kino to pounamu he pounamu onamata in 2004 and Te Hei Tiki in 2005 at the Auckland City Gallery. She also received a Te Waka Toi Grant in 2004, and was an artist-in-residence at Lake Wakatipu for Wild Creations. She is one of two artists whose photographs have been chosen by Musee du Quai Branly in Paris for permanent display as well as a suite of her heitiki being gifted to the Musee by the New Zealand government.
Fiona has published a book of poetry and photographs with well-known New Zealand poet David Howard ‘How to Occupy Ourselves’, which was assisted by a grant from the literary board of Creative New Zealand.
Fiona has two children, Akura te Mata o Tahiti born in 1986, and Jack-Rahi, born in 1995, and lives in Cheltenham, North Shore, Auckland.