The Auckland Festival of Photography is upon the City of Sails once more and features dozens of exhibitions.

The annual event encompasses photography both as an art practice and as a means of documentation. This year there is a focus on the significance of photojournalism and the space where people and natural forces overlap. Allan McDonald’s project, Walking in the City, is a series about the New Zealand cityscape, focusing on buildings that have been deemed structurally unsound. A comment on the wide-ranging impact of the earthquakes, as much as it is an attempt to hold onto our fragile architectural heritage, Walking in the City is at the Anna Miles Gallery from 23 May to 15 June.

Also engaging with the urban landscape, Paul Batt and Fernando Montiel Klint, Australian and Mexican respectively, tackle modern China: its growth, its diversity, and its struggles. Their show China is at Hum Salon from June 5 to June 21.

Moving from the tangible to the surreal, Neil Pardington’s the Order of Things features eerie images of preserved creatures and inhabits Newton’s Two Rooms Gallery. Finally, Gow Langsford Gallery’s Monument show promises to be a winner. The exhibition focuses on the work of Cuban-American artist Anthony Goicolea, amidst works by many other top international image-makers, including German photographer Thomas Ruff, Australian subversive art photographer Tracey Moffat, and New Zealand’s unofficial photographer laureate Laurence Aberhart.

The festival officially runs from May 30 to June 21 but dates for each show vary. See the festival website for further information and competition details.