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Sky Tower Casino, Auckland

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A moody Blade Runner-inspired digital artwork showing Auckland's Sky Tower at night, lit in cold silver-white against a deep purple-black sky, with a full moon glowing softly through cloud cover at right and vertical rain streaks overlaying the entire scene. The composition has a cinematic neo-noir atmosphere.
Auckland Sky Tower Under a Full Moon — Moody Night Artwork

Auckland's skyline has rearranged itself more than once. For most of the 20th century, the landmark that dominated the view across the Waitematā Harbour was Rangitoto Island — the perfect volcanic cone that rose from the sea around 600 years ago and remains the youngest of Auckland's fifty-odd volcanoes. Then in 1997, something different appeared on the horizon.

The Sky Tower

The Sky Tower at SkyCity opened in August 1997 and immediately rewrote Auckland's silhouette. At 328 metres, it's the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, and from almost any vantage point in or around the city — North Shore, Mount Eden, the harbour bridge, the Devonport ferry — it punctuates the view. For better or worse, depending on whom you ask, the Sky Tower has become the primary icon of Auckland.

The tower is floodlit every night, and special occasions get celebrated with a new colour scheme. When I was visiting in March 2011, the tower was lit in an unusual bluish-green cyan, and my friend — whose apartment I was photographing from — said it was the first time she'd seen it that colour. We never did find out what was being commemorated that night.

A Blade Runner Treatment

I took the photographs soon after the full moon rose, on a typical partly-clouded Auckland evening — the kind that softens the city's edges without quite obscuring them. In developing the artwork afterwards, I leaned into a dramatic, neo-noir treatment inspired by the visual language of Blade Runner: deep purples and near-blacks, the tower lit in a cold silver-white against the darkness, the moon glowing softly through cloud cover to the right, and vertical rain streaks running across the whole scene.

The rain streaks read more strongly in print than they may on screen, but the moody intent comes through either way. It's a piece that wants to live in a hallway or stairwell rather than over a sofa — somewhere it can catch you slightly off guard.

Available at Redbubble

If this dark, cinematic take on Auckland's most recognisable landmark is your style, the artwork is available across a range of products at my Redbubble shop — canvas prints, framed prints, posters, and a variety of other formats.

👉 Auckland Sky Tower Under a Full Moon — Redbubble

View all my work on Redbubble by searching @kornkobart.

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Do Not Disconnect - The Real Digital Divide

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The fly in the ointment, Opito Bay, around 2007. This post was originally published in November, 2007. Almost two decades on, the photograph and the argument both feel — if anything — more relevant than they did then. I have updated this post lightly in May, 2026, some 19 years later! The Photograph I was on holiday in Opito Bay on New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula, sitting on the couch in the place we were staying at. A friend's iPod was resting on the coffee table, on top of a copy of The Economist from March 2005, whose cover story happened to be titled "The Real Digital Divide." A fly landed on the iPod's click wheel and stayed there. I reached for my camera, took the shot, and edited it later in Photoshop to give it the grungy, oversaturated look you see above. The fly on the iPod along with "The Real Digital Divide" struck me — immediately, and with a kind of emb...
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Samoan Youth

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This young man was preparing with his friends for his moment of fame on the stage at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian dance festival called Pasifika in Auckland in March this year. Samoan Youth Canon EOS 20D 1/30sec at f/20 ISO 200 Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm
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Anza-Borrego Wildflowers

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Anza Borrego Desert State Park California Wildflowers This cluster of wildflowers is typical of the flowers in Plum Canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert this spring. Because of the dry and harsh environment, most of the flowers are tiny like the three in this photo. But what they lack in size, they make up for in color. It's pretty difficult to try and identify all these flowers, but I'm pretty sure the white one is Desert Pincushion. Help out if you can. I've been using the CalFlora.org website to try and identify the flowers in this series.
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