When German photographer Antonia
Steeg was invited to attend the last muster at the historic Mesopotamia Station
in 2008, the event lead to a four year long project.
Being a gifted photographer, a capable horsewoman, and good company, word
of Antonia’s abilities spread and she soon found herself being invited to visit
the most remote homesteads and embarking on a massive project.
Antonia went on to photograph all around the high country. She drove her
rugged 4WD over 120,000 kilometres, photographed from helicopters hovering at
14,000 feet, and rode on horseback into parts of the country that few will ever
reach. She experienced all the wild extremes of our ever-changing weather and
made more than 100 station visits. Of the tens of thousands of high quality
photographs she took, three hundred of the very best are distilled into a
beautiful book being published by Te Papa Press this October.
“The seasons in this environment give a real structure to the lives of
all who live there,” says Antonia. “The people on these farms are
extraordinary, they have the most positive and hospitable outlook I have
encountered anywhere, and I hope that my pictures capture some of that.”
Many New Zealanders and visitors to this country feel an affinity for the
South Island’s high country for its majestic scenery and rich mythology. Antonia’s
evocative images of its snow-cloaked mountains, tussock grasslands, and massive
braided rivers shaped by millions of years of natural events, portray a place
where high-tech farming methods are being used alongside tools that an early
settler would recognise, where animals play an essential role, and where
livelihoods are constantly at the mercy of the elements.
‘High Country New Zealand: the
Land, the People, the Seasons’, is available to purchase from bookshops
nationwide or online at www.tepapastore.co.nz
It is a stunningly visual celebration of a unique place seen through fresh and
compassionate eyes.
More of Antonia’s photographic work can be viewed at antoniasteeg.com
High Country New Zealand: the Land, the People, the Seasons by Antonia Steeg with an introduction by Philip Temple is
published by Te Papa Press, October 2012.
RRP NZ$99.99
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