Peter Peryer photographs;
Essays by Peter Simpson and Peter Peryer
AUP, $59.95 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

PETER PERYER himself introduces us to his book – and to himself. In ‘First Light’, a brief autobiographical essay, he gives us some insight into the man and the artist, and where they came from. It largely comprises of seemingly random thoughts/vignettes about his childhood – such as “In 1953 we were given little British flags on sticks and made to line up along a footpath and wave at Queen Elizabeth as she was driven past. What beautiful skin, I remember thinking” – before slipping into more of a direct narrative as he gets older. While it ends shortly after he first picked up a camera, throughout Peryer hints at the foundations of his photographic interests without spelling it out.

Issue 1, Spring 2008
VizulEyz Collective, NZ$9 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

VizulEyz is a new publication by a group of photographers who met at the Rangiora Photographic Society and who have a strong interest in classic documentary photography – decisive moment, black and white.

MARK AMERY trawls the internet in search of New Zealand art criticism.

Rick Alexander photographs;
Introduction by Peter Ireland
RA, NZ$75 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

ABOUT ten years ago the book A Century of Images was released. It was a loose history of New Zealand photography taken from the archives at Te Papa. Amongst those represented were the familiar, both names and images, and the unknown. The opening image is a dramatic shot of a sand dune, with beautiful textures, lovely tones, and heavy vignetting, which while looking recent, could have been taken at any point in the last 100 or so years.

Laurence Aberhart Photographs;
Essays by Gregory O’Brien and Justin Paton
VUP, NZ$125 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

THE LAST FEW years have seen a proliferation of survey shows and publications of New Zealand photography and photographers – Marti Friedlander, Anne Noble, Peter Black, Ans Westra, Gary Blackman, and Wayne Barrar. Most of these photographers began their photography as part of the documentary tradition: the photo-journalist, the street photographer, think Magnum, think Robert Frank, Walker Evans etc.