Taranaki (The Heavens Declare the Glory of God) New Plymouth, 14 May 1986

taranakiLaurence Aberhart's 8 x 10 inch Korona view camera is one of the most exacting tools available to any camera artist. It produces negative of astonishing detail, but requires complete self-awareness in framing the view. In 1986, Aberhart lived in Wanganui as artist-in-residence at the Sarjeant Gallery. During a twelve-month period, he made many photographs of Taranaki, the perfect cone-shaped mountain that has always defined the region's identity. Here, the spherical roof of the observatory, the curiously hand-painted sign, the inexplicably covered windows and the miniaturised scale of the mountain are all elements in a tableau which seems to announce a forthcoming presence. As Aberhart has noted about his concerns: 'I have a belief in the power and beauty of the photograph . . . A belief that a photograph is able to achieve transcendence from this time, this place and the object that it apparently is, to become something "other". I feel that it is my duty as a photographer to strive to be the agent in the process of making this thing, this photograph, lose the entrapments of this time, this place, this object and achieve that transcendent, precious other'. (from The Guide, 2001)

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