We were staying in Peter Peryer’s house in New Plymouth a week or so ago and saw on a window sill a battered Buzzy Bee with a feather sticking out of its tail. That took us back. It was once part of a tableau (Buzzy Bee, feather and small woven basket) that was the subject of a 1982 Peryer photograph Still life.
Off on a hunt through Peter’s house for other objects that might have inspired photographs we bagged a number including: the two surprisingly small photographs of Peter’s parents from his picture My Parents taken over 40 years ago; the wooden foot that balances the tomato in Holy Tomato from 2006; the pumpkin for 2006’s Pumpkin; the rocket for.. er… Rocket 2003, and the shells that were in a number of photographs including Shell Study 2001.
At the end of the hunt we came across the real big game, an elephant and an antelope roaming the top of the filing cabinet from this year’s Ebony.
Images: Top row left to right, objects from Peter Peryer photographs Still life, My parents, Rocket. Middle row: Pumpkin, Shells, Holy tomato, Bottom row : animals from Ebony
