With barely three years behind the lens, Tauranga fine art portrait photographer Karolina Ferbei has been chosen to represent New Zealand in an international art and photography exhibition in India.

She has already won multiple awards for her work and has run workshops teaching other photographers her style.

The Aura International Painting and Photography Exhibition, hosted by Retro Kolkata Magazine is being held from June 16-18.

This prestigious event celebrates the best in photography, painting, fashion and music, with work shown from talented artists from around the world. The exhibition organisers called for entries, but invited Karolina.

An award-winning portrait by photographer Karolina Ferbei. Photo: Karolina Ferbei.

'I received an email inviting me to represent New Zealand with my work. I had to send three or four photos and they chose one.”

She's only been working as a photographer for the last three years, since 2020.

She previously worked as a civil engineer for an engineering consultancy company, helping with design work in infrastructure projects.

'I left my full time job at the end of 2020 to focus full time on my photography.

'I was wanting something to do on my own, have my own business and work from home for myself.”

An award-winning portrait by photographer Karolina Ferbei. Photo: Karolina Ferbei.

She says she enjoyed the freedom of working from home during lockdown in 2020.

'I was wondering what to do, had a camera, took a few courses to help me boost my skill and developed further.”

Karolina has been living in NZ for the last six years, moving here from Russia, and lives with her partner, who is Indian.

'I was studying engineering here for a year, and then started to work here.”

Her fine art portraits are proving to be very popular.

'Artistic portraits is a style I fell in love with and wanted to create these portraits for women in a way that they'd never seen themselves.”

An award-winning portrait by photographer Karolina Ferbei. Photo: Karolina Ferbei.

Her international awards include WPE Silver May 2023, Portrait Photo Awards 2021-2023, 35Awards - Woman Portrait with flowers - top 4 per cent in October 2022, Portrait Masters Bronze and Silver 2021-2022. In New Zealand she won bronze in the Iris Awards in August 2022.

She was also a speaker for the Tauranga Photographic Society in June 2021 and ran a workshop for Photographic Society of New Zealand in Oct 2022.

'I like to create a visual for a woman of what they always wanted to be. Some want to be a goddess in a forest or a fairytale. I love outdoor shoots. I can place my clients in amazing scenes of beautiful New Zealand nature, and capture not just a photo, but an art piece.

'My goal is to work from home for myself and help women to create their most beautiful portraits so they could see them every day and return to the state of empowerment. It will change the way they see themselves, and it will help them feel beautiful inside.”

To see more of Karolina Ferbei's work go to www.karolinaferbeiphoto.nz