Having operated Philip Kuruvita Photography with wife Vicki for nearly 30 years, Tasmania’s only Grand Master of Photography has begun transitioning his business into a fresh pair of hands.

Over the course of a five-year handover period, Kuruvita’s daughter Sam will take control of the studio to allow him to focus on other projects such as the From The Menu series and the Faces of Launceston exhibitions.

Kuruvita said now was the perfect time to propel the business into its second generation.

“It’s coming up to retirement time soon for me in the next five years and this studio will have been running for 30 years next year, and it just seemed like a real shame to shut it,” Kuruvita said.

“So I talked to Sam and said ‘what are your plans, what do you see in your mind and is this something you’d be interested in?’

“And for a kid who always said ‘I’m never going to be a photographer’, she jumped at it a lot quicker than I thought.”

Armed with a degree in film and digital media and two awards from the Australian Institute of Professional Photography, Kuruvita’s successor brings plenty of her own credentials to the table.

The former Newstead College student said that even after two years running a photography business in Melbourne, she was still a bit surprised to find herself following her father’s footsteps.

“I was definitely not going to be a photographer for a really long time,” she said. 

“I went to uni and did filmmaking because photography was not my thing, it was Dad’s thing and I wasn’t going to have a part of it.

“It was suggested to me that maybe doing some photography classes would help with my filmmaking and by the end of my degree I was like ‘I don’t want to do filmmaking, I’ll do photography’.”

That decision has been well-received by her father, who is excited by the prospect of taking the business in a new direction.

“Sam’s not just coming in to copy me or to do what I’ve done, she’s spent eight years in Melbourne and she brings a very contemporary style of photography that’s very different to mine.

“So it’s not business as usual in the style of photography that we’re doing, but it is very much so in the quality, the attention to detail and the customer service.”