Where Nature and Art Combine

I’m Emma Willetts-Smith, a landscape and aerial photographer based in the beautiful Waitaki district of New Zealand.

I’ve always been drawn to wild landscapes, but it was seeing them from the air that completely changed the way I photographed them. From above, familiar places become something else entirely. Rivers turn into intricate patterns, mountains become layers of colour and texture, and details that are almost invisible from the ground suddenly become the photograph.

Much of my work is photographed from small planes and helicopters, often with the door off and my camera in hand, searching for those fleeting combinations of light, colour, texture and movement. I’m particularly drawn to braided rivers and the beautiful, abstract patterns created by water as it moves through the landscape.

Photography has taken me throughout New Zealand, Australia and further afield, capturing everything from alpine landscapes and glaciers to coastlines, rivers and remote wilderness.

My prints have found their way into homes and commercial spaces around the world, and my photography has received multiple awards, including awards at the NZIPP Iris Awards and winning the aerial category of the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year Awards in 2020.

For me, the most exciting photographs are often the ones that make you stop for a moment and wonder what you’re looking at. A landscape that becomes almost painterly. A river that looks more like an abstract artwork. A familiar part of the world seen from an entirely different perspective.

That’s what I hope to bring into your space. A little piece of the landscape, and perhaps a different way of seeing the world.

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