veronique
Véronique Cornille is a leading social documentary, cultural and natural heritage photographer who celebrates the extra-ordinary in the ordinary, with emphasis on colour and light. She acknowledges her father Maurits who taught her to think outside the square, her mother Ghislaine who taught her to find beauty in simple things, her twins Stéphane and Zénobie who are true friends and artists, her ancestors from whom she inherits her Flemish heritage, and Māori whose culture she shared as a child and with whom she works closely. It is through these influences that the mana of other cultural heritages is celebrated within her work.

Her turangawaewae are farms in two countries: at Port Waikato New Zealand, Ohutu the site of the old family villa and a few kilometres away Flandria the farm of her youth; as well as the ancestral farms in Flanders Belgium, Roode Poort at St Joris to where her mother’s family returned after it was flooded to stop the German advance during WWI, and Kwinta in Veurne. The limestone bluffs of Kwinta at Port Waikato, from which the Flandria block was subdivided, appear in the movie Lord of the Rings.

Véronique lives in Nelson . Her photographic books include Nelson Alive 2001 and The Outside Table 2005 (Suter Art Gallery).

Véronique acknowledges Steve Smith for his generosity with time and technical knowledge, and Robbie Burton at Craig Potton Publishing for advocating the development of this site.

2003 In the Dog House Exhibition Suter Art Gallery, Nelson New Zealand
2003The New Zealand Collection Exhibition National Bank, Nelson New Zealand
2003Video History workshop @ New Zealand Film School
2003 Recipient of PADET grant for work with 28 Māori Battalion
2004 mahia ngā mahi kei tamariki ana – make the most of your time while you are young 4 x 1 metre collage mural, permanent collection Broadgreen Intermediate School,
          Nelson New Zealand
2005 commissioned by Glenn Schaeffer to photograph a book on New Zealanders and their places
2005 Concrete and Clay Exhibition, The Story of Woollaston Estates Winery and Vineyard, Mahana New Zealand
2006 & 2007 photographed The Paris Collection
2006 & 2007 commenced photography in Flanders, Belgium of Kiwis in Flanders Collection including first stage of photographing the graves and memorials of all 4633
          New Zealand soldiers killed in Flanders, Belgium
2006 appointed by the Minister of Conservation to the Nelson/Marlborough Conservation Board
2007 Points of View (fromThe Paris Collection) World of Wearable Art Museum, Nelson New Zealand
2008 Anzac Kiwis in Flanders Exhibition (from collection of the same name) Nelson Public Library
2008 Image Singing Thrush (from The Vineyards and Winery Collection) chosen for exhibition at the Palais du Luxembourg, Paris
2009 sale of two photos of Hone Tuwhare at Webbs Fine Art Auction, Auckland
2009 sale of "Dining Table of Mr & Mrs Tupa'i, Mangere 2008" Suter Art Gallery for Samoan Tsunami Relief Fund