Moments of Wonder and Realisation in New Zealand Wilderness
By Peter Laurenson (Bateman Books, 2025)
In Aotearoa Light, Peter Laurenson combines his stunning landscape photography with a message of positive action. The hope is that, rather than pleading, shaming or cajoling, sharing images like the ones in the book can be galvanising when it comes to what we humans choose to do with what he calls our “planet altering power”.
The book is structured not by geographical region, but by aspects of Aotearoa’s landscapes and environment: coastline, rivers and streams, lakes and tarns, forests, tussock and shrubland, rocky tops, snow and ice (the images in this section really pop), and cloud and mist. I love this approach because it really evokes the feelings of being in the outdoors, which are not defined by places names or regional boundaries, but by landforms and weather and, as the title acknowledges, light. Light is both the primordial ingredient of photography and possibly the most special thing about the outdoors in Aotearoa. Because who hasn’t looked at a ridgeline, or over a seascape, or up through a tree canopy on these islands and said, “man, would you look at that light.”
LAURA WILLIAMSON
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