Fine pictures, poor maps

Press, 13 December 1986, Page 27

Fine pictures, poor maps

New Zealand from the Air. By Philip Temple and Andris Apse. Whitcoulls, 1986. 190 pp. Index. $44.95.

Two talented New Zealand photographers have joined forces to produce one of the more striking collections of colour photographs of the country. This is much more than just a picture book. It displays New Zealand from Cape Reinga to Paterson’s Inlet on Stewart Island, and from the patterns of fern and cabbage trees in the North Island forests to the patterns of crevasses in the upper Fox Glacier. The colour printing is excellent and Philip Temple provides a sensitive and evocative commentary on the country, its people, and its past. But the New Zealand authors and publishers have been let down badly by their Singapore printers, or by whoever had responsibility for seeing the book through production. A remarkable double-page spread of Lyttelton from the air, for instance, has been printed with the picture reversed. And the maps are a disaster. This is especially sad because,

unlike many collections of photographs of the country, this one sensibly includes small location maps for most of its illustrations, as well as larger maps of both islands. But many of the location maps are just plain wrong, and the larger maps misplace such features as Auckland, Invercargill, and the Rangitata River. “New Zealand from the Air” remains a beautiful book — one of four or five in the last few years that manage to evoke the moods of different regions, and to encourage New Zealanders to see their country through new eyes. When the photographers have worked so hard and shown such ingenuity and technical skill, they deserved better support in production. If the book was intended only for tourists, perhaps the mistakes would not matter. Many countries take little care over the detail of souvenirs produced for the passing trade. But this is a book that should be especially appealing to New Zealanders. It deserves a revised, corrected edition as soon as possible.—Literary Editor.