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Katharina | Award-winning Body Acceptance Photographer 📸

@thehuman.gallery

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🔘 Photography & art that help you unf**k your body image. Real talk. Real humans. No Photoshop.
🔘Auckland | Aotearoa
✨️Exhibition 27.09 - 25.10.2026

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Surprise! I won another award! Absolutely unreal! 😍 A Silver Award at the NZIPP Iris 2026 Awards! Portrait Category.

Two men. Holding each other. I love this image for everything it quietly challenges. Its quite rare that I'm in love with images I take as I'm quite hard on myself.

We see women's bodies portrayed as soft, vulnerable and intimate ALL THE TIME. But tenderness between men - especially tenderness that isn't seggsual, performative or played for a joke - still feels far less visible.

No walls up.
No performance of masculinity.
No need to make the moment less intimate.

So having this photograph recognised with a Silver Award feels incredibly special.

Because this is exactly what I want my work to make space for: bodies beyond what we expect from them, vulnerability without shame, and humans being allowed to exist outside the boxes we've built around them.

#thehumangallery taken in New Zealand by @thehuman.gallery

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2 months ago

I won a Bronze Award at the NZIPP Iris Awards 2026. 🥹 Category Creative Portrait.

And I don't think I can fully explain how healing that feels.

I created this photograph before my breast reduction. The googly eyes represented something I had felt for such a long time - the feeling that no matter where I went, everyone was staring at my b00bs.

They attracted comments, looks and attention I never asked for. For a long time, they felt like the first thing people saw when they looked at me.

Before the reduction, I ddcided to turn that feeling into a photograph.

There is something incredibly healing about having an experience that once made me want to hide be recognised as art. Not because an award suddenly makes that experience worthwhile, but because I got to take ownership of it. I got to decide how it was seen.

My b00bs really went out with a bang. 😂🏆

NZIPP Iris Awards 2026 - Bronze Award, Creativd Photography.

#thehumangallery by @thehuman.gallery

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2 months ago

IT’S HAPPENING. 🥹😍😭

After years of planning and wanting this so badly, The Human Gallery is becoming a real-life exhibition. 😭

From 27 September – 25 October 2026, The Human Gallery will be exhibited at The Button Factory in Auckland.

This isn't going to be an exhibition where you quietly walk around, look at some photographs and leave.

There will be conversations. Connection. A panel talk. Interactive pieces. And opportunities to actually explore the relationship we have with our own bodies and the bodies around us.

A collection of real bodies, real people and real stories:
Bodies we've struggled with, disconnected from, learned to understand, and sometimes finally started calling home.

No retouching bodies into something they're not.
No requirement to be confident.
No "before and after."
No perfect ending.

Just humans.

I've spent months photographing people, listening to their stories, planning, questioning myself approximately 463 times 😂 and trying to create something that feels honest.

And now I finally get to say:

Welcome to The Human Gallery.

📍 The Button Factory, Auckland
🗓 27 September – 25 October 2026
🎟 Opening Night: Sunday 27 September

More details coming very, very soon.

I genuinely cannot wait for you to see this. ❤️

Huge thanks to @hayleygreercontent / @hayleygreerfilms for making me feel so safe, seen and confident in front of your lens 💖

#thehumangallery#whatsonauckland#aucklandevent#BodyAcceptance taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @thehuman.gallery

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2 months ago

A few snippets from the amazing @na.bu.len from the Exhibition Opening Night at @thebuttonfactorynz ❤️

I'm still processing the beauty of this experience and all the work behind it. I couldn't have done it without all your help! 🥹 taken in The Button Factory by @thehuman.gallery

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4 days ago

What an amazing wonderful RAWR T-Rex weird crazy evening its been! 🥹 I still can't believe my little dream has turned into reality! I couldn't have done it without the help of incredible friends, the team of The Button Factory, a supportive work team, the warehouse stationery, my reliable 19 year old car Hamish, my AuDhD diagnosis and my amazing new flatmates I moved in with during all of this, allowing me to use their entire living room as a trial art gallery!

Thank you @lucaszalmas, @camiduartech_, @t_withhoneyyyy, @carlagibson12, @emjnz , @gooey_caramelle_center for helping during and before the opening night with content creation, photography, setup, greeting, making sure we are fed, and checking in guests and even doing my hair last minute lol

Thank you so much @theeofficial_liva , @thepolecomedian and @_wheely_sweet_ to share your story on the panel.

Thank you @humansareawesome.films for filming this entire process. I feel so honored to be part of your series ❤️

Thank you @gussimonovic from @thebuttonfactorynz to keep pushing so I won't overthink this for another 31 years!

Thank you Delores and her team for the amazing catering!

Thank you @tumoko_rolleston for the karakia to bless our kai!

Special Thanks to @drinkterpsnz for generously gifting us 50 cans of their amazing botanical drinks for the opening night. We definitely felt the feelz ❤️🥹🤣

Thank you to Laura & Felicia for the beautiful flowers 💐

Thank you to each and every human I photographed in those 4 years. YOU are The Human Gallery ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I'm beyond words. I'm so so so so so so happy. And still can't believe it!!! 💖😭🥹

To everyone that couldn't make it last night - please check the exhibition out - Mo-Fr 10-5pm until 28th October 2026 ❤️

#TheHumanGallery#exhibition#aucklandevent taken in The Button Factory by @thehuman.gallery

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15 days ago

What a wild week! A week full of cutting frames, aligning frames, cutting myself on frames lol, squeezed in a tiny bit of quality time with friendos, seen enough Command Strips for the rest of my life, an exciting collaboration with Kiran, cat cuddles, an exhibition set up day and a cool as sign!

Can't wait to see you all on Sunday! By the way, I think about going live on Instagram for the opening. What do we thinks? 😊 by @thehuman.gallery

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19 days ago

A little piece of someone’s story, finding its place in the world. 🧡

Every photograph holds a human, a body, and a story worth being seen.

And behind the scenes, I’m slowly bringing all these stories together into something bigger than I ever imagined.

I can’t show you everything just yet… but I promise, it’s coming together. 🥹

6 days until The Human Gallery opens its doors.

The opening evening is sold out unfortunately but the exhibition will be open Mo-Fr 10-5pm until 25th of October 2026. 😊💖

Free entry. Come exactly as you are.

#TheHumanGallery#BodyAcceptance#workinprogress#womeninphotography taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @thehuman.gallery

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22 days ago

One frame at a time. One tiny breakdown at a time. One very big dream slowly coming to life. 💖😭

The Human Gallery opens September 27. See you there. 💖

#TheHumanGallery#whatsonauckland#kroadnz by @thehuman.gallery

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24 days ago

This week has been extremely busy. I worked every weekend day and every night on my exhibition! I also moved house. Its a lot. But I'm pushing through - especially as I'm SO FUCKING EXCITED TO BRING THIS EXHIBITION TO YOU GUYS! 💖 I'm planning some super exciting things for us and can't wait to share these with you!

#thehumandiaries#TheHumanGallery by @thehuman.gallery

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a month ago

None of this crap at my exhibition! The Human Gallery is a safe haven, a place to feel Human again. Without the need of being someone else or fitting into someone else's beauty standards ❤️

Only 14 Days to go!
26.09.2026 - 25.10.2026
Open Mo-Fr 10am - 5pm. Bottom level of The Button Factory.
@thebuttonfactorynz

#TheHumanGallery#exhibition#whatsonauckland by @thehuman.gallery

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a month ago

What actually happens when you put a bunch of humans in a room and give them permission to just… be? 👀

That’s kind of the whole point of this retreat.

No performing. No needing to be confident. No being “good” at dancing, sharing, connecting or being photographed.

Alongside @_ladyfem_ @beinflownow & @sonya.the.quiet.mage we created this very special day to get out of your head for a little while and come back into your body. ❤️

We’ll move. Dance. Connect. Share. Eat together. Slow down. Get a little weird. And there’ll be space for an optional mini portrait experience, too. 📸

Everything is an invitation. You choose what participation looks like for you.

✨ Coming Home to Your Body — Somatic Day Retreat
📍 The Button Factory, Auckland
📅 Sunday 18 October
🕚 11am–4pm
🎟️ Tiered Tickets available now — link in bio

Come exactly as you are. Your body is already invited. 🤍 taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @thehuman.gallery

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a month ago

A good week! Moving this weekend - feeling excited but also kinda bittersweet about it. It was a bit less than a year ago that I moved in here after leaving my past relationship behind me and loved this place for mental recovery. Now I'm moving on, which gives me a feeling of final letting go of it all! Which is good. Its just that this place here, despite the challenges I faced here was my safe haven close to the ocean 💖 I'm sure my new place will be great too and the flatties are so nice already. I'm just not that great in transitions. But life has been a massive season of change already so this last transition will be fine too! 😊

#TheHumanGallery by @thehuman.gallery

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a month ago