Winter 2025

This winter, I had three weeks on the road in some of the most beautiful winter landscapes in New Zealand. I’ll never tire of visiting these places in winter; every dawn is so different. The landscape becomes a chameleon, changing with each morning. From the biting cold that covers it in frost to the stillness that turns lakes into mirrors, from skies of deep blue to ones that feel like the world below has caught on fire before. The winter landscape offers the finest palette for any artist to work with, as long as they can find what they wish to say.

Snow Birch

Snow Birch, Canterbury, New Zealand, 2025

Winter is one of my favourite seasons to work in, but this year I’ve only returned with one frame I’m happy with; Snow Birch. Some might say that’s not very productive, and I agree – I’m not a very productive photographer – but I’m fine with that. Creating art isn’t about productivity. I’m happy if I come away with ten works in a year, not ten for one trip, not ten from one day. It’s easy to look at a portfolio and think how productive an artist is, but often so many years have been spent building it.

I’m happy to pass up a pleasing photograph to have a pleasing moment reflecting on the landscape. I save my creative energy for a moment that speaks to me, a moment. I have something to say. Creating work that is personal and meaningful doesn’t arrive quickly. Every time I head out into the landscape, I can’t always find what I wish to say – what I wish to express from my connection with this place. Sometimes the landscape will be shouting loudly, making a bold statement as it vividly paints the sky above it at dawn, trying so hard to be heard and noticed. As hard as it tries, it still might not speak to me. I’m happy to wait for the moment I find something I want to say, to say something about my connection with this place, my connection with Mother Nature. This often comes from a moment when I find some solitude in this place, some stillness in my mind, a moment of silence in this busy world that allows me to be content with the landscape. I feel it wasn’t the landscape, conditions, or the light that stopped me from making more work this winter. It was my busy mind being somewhere else, a barrier to engage in the moment and express the landscape.