Far Beyond Creative Photography

Far Beyond Creative Photography specialises in New Zealand landscape, nature, architecture, lifestyle and culture photography and photographic artwork by Jo Mertens. Jo is a highly experienced self-taught photographer and editor. She was born in the Netherlands and moved to New Zealand in 2005. The beauty of New Zealand is an ongoing inspiration for her work.

Far Beyond Creative Photography supplies high quality images. The images on this website are available in low resolution for web and high resolution RGB TIFF files of up to 41 MB. Most images can be purchased for commercial and/or private use. More information can be found under pricing and terms of use. Please contact us if you have any questions or would like to request a quote.

Art Explosion

The name Art Explosion is a reference to the New Zealand Pohutukawa tree. Pohutu means big splash or explosion. Pohutukawa stands for "sprinkled by spray", which is a reference to the fact that the tree is usually found along the seashore. It is found virtually everywhere along the coastline of the upper half of the North Island, which refers to my love for the coast. The tree has a remarkable ability to cling to steep cliffs and hillsides and grow in other seemingly impossible locations. I don't cling to steep cliffs and hillsides anymore, but I would if I could... The bright colours I like to use in my artwork for Art Explosion represent the blaze of crimson flowers of the tree.

Jo's Garage Fine Art Photography

The name Jo's Garage is a reference to Frank Zappa's album Joe's Garage from the seventies. That music was extraordinary and completely different from anything I had heard before, which is what I would like to achieve in a visual way through my art.