“A suite of photographs that are emotive, hopeful and haunting” - Roberta Thornley

Raglan attracts travellers from all around the world. When I first

journeyed from France to New-Zealand in 2019, I arrived with

Romantic ideas of this country as a place where the nature was

untouched, a place of pristine landscapes and harmonious

communities.

Romantic aesthetics, with its emphasis on emotional responses,

have the power to forge perceptions of places. I slowly became

aware of the role of this aesthetic in colonial propaganda and

contemporary tourism. The Romantic influenced my previous

work and ideas, and I felt the need to evolve my artistic practice.

Presenting the Raglan coastline through contemporary

photography’s Romantic aesthetics, Overlook allegorises this

framing through the complicated reality of place. Scale, space,

and colours allow us to step back, to think of the landscape as a

mindset, and reflect on our role in these places.

As viewers, we know that the colour of the sand has been altered,

hinting that what we see is a constructed image. But because we

know that the sand is not in reality pink, does it mean that, in real

life, we are able to really see the true colour of the sand? When we

open our eyes, do we really see what lies before us? Or do we only

look out for what confirms our inner fantasies?