Blog

Peter was a great believer in communicating about photography and got into blogging in its early days.

His blog ran, with some gaps, from 30 November 2006 to 2 September 2018.

You can visit the earliest entries via archived links on the right hand side of this page.

Antlers

On the West Coast, near Franz Josef Glacier I came across this impressive
arch made of deer antlers. It spanned some gates.

Below are some drawings showing different sorts of antlers. Whenever I am in
Fiordland, which has been quite often over the last few months, I
hope that it is true that there are still some survivors of the 10 Canadian moose that were released there in 1910. Recent dna analysis of hair found caught in branches in 2002 looks promising. A moose cow was shot by a hunter in 1951. He was subsequently remorseful.


Southern Studies

Today I was in Invercargill, at the Southland Museum & Art Gallery.
It was quite a big moment for me because I have an exhibition of 31 photos there at present. I hadn’t seen the show before and there was no opening. The show began on Jan 8th and is on until March 2nd.

I’ve had minimal contact with the gallery lately, largely because the four staff members who I usually dealt with have all recently left, nothing to do with me I hasten to add. I hadn’t seen any installation shots so I was rather apprehensive when I walked in. In fact I had to take a friend. The last time I saw the show was when it was laid out on the floor of my New Plymouth studio.

The room had a number of visitors who seemed to be quite absorbed in looking at the photos which I took to be a good sign however I was worried that I would overhear some derogatory remarks so I had to force myself to stay as long as I did. I don’t find it easy being so exposed to the public, in that way I’m in the wrong job.

Eventually I did lose my nerve and just before bolting I grabbed this image as quickly as I could before I got out of there. Unfortunately I must, in my haste, have moved the camera. I can see camera shake.

I’d love to be able to direct you to their website but it is only half a page long and alas, makes no mention of my show at all!

Inadequate websites are not uncommon among galleries in New Zealand but most surprising example is the Govett-Brewster in New Plymouth. Even though they claim to be a contemporary art gallery, in fact the ‘leading contemporary museum in the country’ and liberally use words like ‘groundbreaking’ they have a site that is bordering on being woefully unpleasant to navigate. Try it for yourself.


Te Papa

At present it is Te Papa’s 10th birthday. While leaving Wellington
on a ferry a few days ago I saw this view of it. I realised that
I hadn’t seen any photos of it from the sea for a long time, maybe 10
years. Now I see why. (click on the image to see a larger view)

While I have heard the front view described as that of a ‘Russian polytech’ this view
reminded of my backyard. Sydney Opera House it is not.

Ten Minutes from Home

Last Sunday I left New Plymouth heading for the ferry to cross Cook Strait.

Ten minutes south I stopped at a technology museum to photograph
this classic roller. It was raining hence the fuzz.

Another 20 or so minutes south, at Stratford I had to stop again to photograph the fire engine, sitting on top of a toy museum. I did u turns for both of them. Still, I thought that I was on a roll. It seemed a good sign.

I saw two more photos between New Plymouth and Wellington but both times the traffic was fierce and I was on the wrong side of the road. I didn’t turn around on those occasions because I was concerned about getting to the ferry on time. Still I’ve made a mental note of their whereabouts.


Southward Bound

Today I drove from Greymouth to Alexandra in Central Otago. Including a couple of
stops for fuel and food, plus 3 times when I took my camera out, it took me 9 hours.

The last time that I went over the Haast Pass, as I did today, was about 20 years ago. I also took a photograph of this scene on that occasion but I was using a square format Rolleiflex that did not have a telephoto lens. I prefer the version that I took today.

If I was to print this up for my wall I would increase the contrast slightly.

Exhibition at Southland Museum & Art Gallery

Until March 2nd I have an exhibition of 31 photos that I took during
the 4 months that I was the William Hodges Fellow in Invercargill.

None of the photos have yet been printed up in editions and made available for sale.
However, Whitebait, the one above will be printed soon. Any enquiries about it
can be directed to Paul McNamara. It will be a silver gelatin print, about 300 mm square, in an edition of 15 one of which has been sold. (9/02/08)

I have been asked how took this photo. I went whitebaiting and these unfortunate creatures were emptied into a plastic bucket. The bottom of the bucket formed the circle in the photo. The light on the bottom right was a result of the sun striking the outside of the bucket at that point.

On the Road Again

At last I am nearly ready to take to the road. On Sunday I leave New Plymouth and on Monday I will be on the ferry crossing Cook Strait. I even got a discount because I am now a pensioner!

From now on I hope to be making postings more regularly. This 2 months back in New Plymouth has been a strange time. I have been very distracted and have barely picked up a camera. It is in such contrast to the previous 4 months when I was was in Invercargill and which turned out to be one of the most fruitful photographic periods of my life.

I ask myself what happened when I returned because it is important that I understand. Firstly I arrived back with a bad flu which seemed to carry on right into December, through all this I struggled to get together 31 prints that I needed for a show at the Southland Museum & Art Gallery, opening right at the beginning of January. This was not my choice of a date but I decided to go with it because it wanted to get that project behind me. These 31 were photos that I took while artist in residence there. I desperately wanted to go into the New Year without too much drag from unfinished projects.

I was also very busy with getting together my choice of 80 photos to use as the core of a book to be published in September. Orchestrating these was a big task but a very important one. No sooner was I getting on top of that than I developed a bad case of blood poisoning. I am still on antibiotics and they make me feel a bit strange in the head.

Another major task over this month has been making the switch from PC to Mac. In September I bought my first Mac, a 13 inch screened Macbook. Three weeks ago I bought a 24 inch iMac as well. I want to become a power user. In the past I have been operating my PC in rather a basic way and it has been costing me a lot of time not to say psychic wear and tear.

Every day I have been spending time learning how to operate a Mac. They are very different machines. There are marvelous online tutorials, some of them in video form.

I have an iPod as well and am now learning how to operate that in a way that gives me maximum benefit eg by downloading books for me to listen to when I am travelling which I’m mostly doing on my own.

So there we have it. Flu, show, book, Mac, blood poisoning. That will be some explanation as to why I’ve not been photographing or blogging. I’ve been rather weary as well, still had no holiday for a very long time.

There may be other reasons however. Invercargill is as far away from the art scene in New Zealand as is possible to get unless I travelled another 20 minutes and moved to Bluff. I think that this helped my work to be on the fringe. In many ways the art world is a distraction for me, certainly on many occasions an aggravation. It doesn’t seem to a source of nourishment alas. I hope that this may change.


Alexandre Hogue 1898-1994

There is quite a bit of publicity about Rita Angus at present because this year, being the centenary of her birth, Te Papa are publishing a biography and staging a large exhibition with a substantial catalogue.

Once I owned a Rita Angus landscape painting, although it was one which it seemed she had gone back to at some later stage and made some alterations, to the detriment of the work. There was definitely an area along the bottom that looked different.

Subsequently, I sold the painting to help subsidise my own work. I don’t know where it is now.

It was a surprise to me many years later when, at the National Museum of American Art, in Washington DC, I walked into a room and there were walls covered with paintings that bore a close resemblance to hers. They had been painted by Alexandre Hogue, at the time, still alive and living in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I had not realised until that moment just how much her approach was part of an international style. It was an education for me.


South Island Bound

I am quite busy because I’m getting ready to move back to the South Island
for a year.

Here is a recently restored engine on the site of what was the New Plymouth railway
station. The carriages were very full.


More Kiwis.

I saw these kiwis on the back of a bus. At first I thought that they were
painted but they are not. They
are cut into metal.

They are there to assist in the ventilation and cooling of the engine.

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