Author: Peter Peryer

This author has written 889 articles

Anthropomorphisation.

How nice to have a chance to use this word.
The imbuing of human qualities upon something
nonhuman.

I am often asked what my themes are and I would
say that this is one of them. I recognise that
I often visit this space.

Now I don’t get up in the morning and think
today I am going to take a photo of something
and make it look anthropomorphic. It doesn’t work
like that. Instead, many of the objects that attract me
enough for me to want to photograph them
just seem to turn out that way. I can’t help it.

This gun is an example. It has come out
looking as if it has a personality.

Rhino



The rhino enclosure at Auckland Zoo
caught my eye, but not because
of the rhino. The rhino are there, two of them in the distance,
but they were only
part of the overall attraction.

Playground



A post or so ago I showed a photo of a headless
turtle, in a children’s playground in Whanganui.

Here is another animal from the same site.

Turtle 2



Once again a turtle has caught my eye.
This behemoth lives at the Auckland Zoo.

Although, oddly enough, when I look
at the photo now, the turtle looks
quite small. Well, not massive anyway
as it is in reality.

Something, in the course of making the photo,
has changed the sense of scale.
I think that it is one of my themes.
I’ve noticed it in other photos, the one
below for example.

Turtle



There is an intriguing children’s playground
in Whanganui, with all sorts of animal sculptures, some,
like this one, have been well loved.

If you happen to be in
Whanganui you can’t miss the spot, it’s on the banks of the river,
on the inland side.

The first question that I have about the image, is of course, the
usual one. Should I just discard it or should I stay with it,
maybe make a print and have a look.

The next question is, should I Photoshop out some of the white marks, the toes
for example? Try tidying up the paintwork and see if I like it better, or not.

I especially like the sun flare on the body, and the solid disc of shadow
on the ground.

Portraiture

 
The urge to take portraits is, for me,
one that only comes intermittently,
alas.
One rush came in the mid to late 70’s.
Then there was an extremely large gap.
Another rush came about 5 years ago.
In this case I took a photo of my grandson
Stan who lived in Darwin at that time.
Now he lives in Brisbane but later this week he
will be in Auckland.
Right now I am feeling that I would
like to make some more portraits.
I’m in the mood.
But, all the same
I don’t think that I have a future as
a baby photographer

Central Otago

 

 
I’m finding that I am missing Central Otago.
I had the experience of living for a year
in this Ernst Plischke house overlooking Alexandra
and the Clutha River and a year like that gets
into your bones.
The top photo is from the driveway, the lower
photo is from the balcony on the opposite side
of the house. There were often magnificent clouds,
these reminding me of Dali.

Happy New Year

 
 
I wanted to wish you a happy new year
two or three days ago,
but I couldn’t find a happy photo in my archives.
 
Have dug quite deep and found this one, taken
in 2005, in Whanganui.
 
I did print up an edition I remember, the image
being roughly the same size as you see on your
screen. The edition will be somewhere in the many drawers
that I have in this studio.

Stony Batter, Waiheke Island 2008


 
Back here in my studio in New Plymouth and in the
peace of the New Year holidays, I’m able to trawl
through some photos that I took a couple of years ago
but not ever printed them up for show.
 
Here is one that I took on Waiheke Island.
 
The graffiti is old, dating back to the Second World War.

Fuchsia

 
 
A few days ago I visited friends in Devonport.
 
In their fecund garden there is a fuchsia, chest
high at least, consequently the flowers are pendulous, hanging in a way that
enhances their sculptural nature.
 
This flower is a first generation descendent
of a specimen that flourished on Herald Island,
in the upper reaches of the Waitemata, under
the Harbour Bridge, bearing right towards
Whenuapai, Hobsonville, and Kumeu and below Greenhithe
near Paremoremo.
I lived there for several years
and this flower has come from there.
 
HMS Herald named it when they went on an exploratory cruise while having brought
the Treaty of Waitangi down to Auckland from the Bay of Islands for signing and had a few days to spare.
They were able to circumnavigate Herald Island then, now there is a causeway and heavy
silting although snapper still come up here to breed. The mangroves too
are flourishing and they support an abundance of life.
 
 
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