PASSIONATE ABOUT NATURE

Tushar Sharma

Founder, Director,

Photography Teacher

Tushar Sharma is a nature photographer, teacher, and father of two daughters. IMAgEN8 was born out of his love of nature and his desire to deepen people's love and connection with our natural environment, improve mental wellbeing, foster sustainable living, encourage kaitiakitanga, and bring joy. Tushar is the Principal Educator of IMAgEN8, and has been conducting workshops and publishing books since 2019. He has published 13 books - six of his photography and writings and seven for IMAgEN8.

www.tusharma.com

Nagaja Sanatkumar

Founder, Director

Nagaja Sanatkumar is a professional director and is passionate about youth wellbeing, art, sustainability and nature. She loves exploring New Zealand with her family.

Julie Bassett

Director

Julie Bassett is an executive leader at Constellation Brands, one of NZ’s leading wine companies. Her current responsibilities include HR, communications, IT, data and PMO across their international division. She is also involved in industry wide activities such as women in wine and on-the-job education. In her spare time Julie enjoys nature walks with her dogs and spending time with family. As an amateur photographer, her favourite subjects are African animals, birds and plants.

Penny Milner

Photography Teacher, Mentor

Penny is a photographer who loves to take pictures of nature, people and places. She has 2 children both studying at Otago university. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, cooking, and of course, taking pictures.

D'Artagnan Sprengel

Photography Teacher, Mentor

D’Artagnan is a nature photographer and has been taking photos since he was ten. He mainly does bird and macro photography as well as a bit of astro and landscape photography. He has been very successful in national and international photo competitions and most recently he has been awarded Young Nature Photographer of the Year 2024.

Sasank Sasikumar

Photography Mentor

Sasank is a nature fine art photographer with experience from South Africa and New Zealand. He volunteers for our workshops and mentors students.

Kinga Nagygyorgy

Photography mentor

Kinga is a nature and travel photographer from Hungary. She volunteers at our workshops and mentors students.

Adrian Wild

Videographer, Filmmaker

Adrian is an experienced filmmaker and videographer, volunteering his time to film at workshops and create videos to promote our mission.

Thomas Hamill

Photography Teacher

Thomas is a documentary-style photographer specialising in events, sport and live music, capturing real moments as they happen. He has worked with Sport NZ, Northern Mystics, and the Auckland Philharmonia amongst others. In his spare time, he enjoys being in nature with his young son and family and photographing New Zealand birds.

Vu Khuu

Website

Vu is a software developer, volunteering to maintain the look and feel of the IMAgEN8 website.

Dawn Lee

Social Media

Dawn Lee is a passionate Photographer and Content Creator who graduated from AUT with a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree.

Amolika Soni

Coordinator and workshop volunteer

Amolika is an Aerospace engineer and volunteers as our workshop operations coordinator and workshop photography mentor.

Elina Tumanova

Coordinator

Elina is an Accounting professional and volunteers as our workshop operations coordinator.

Rita Patricio

Magazine Designer

Rita loves being outdoors in nature and using her creativity through graphic design to support meaningful causes like IMAgEN8, creating thoughtful and engaging visual work with purpose.

Katrina Comeskey

Marketing

Katrina is Marketing Manager, volunteering her time to help us with digital marketing, website, SEO.

Dillon Rungan

Advisor

Kia ora! I am Dillon Rungan, Deputy Principal at Auckland Normal Intermediate (ANI). Drawing on my leadership background and six-year collaboration with Tushar at my previous school, Epsom Normal Primary, I’m excited to support IMAGEN8—combining community collaboration with creative nature photography to empower and inspire young learners.