Thursday, April 15, 2010

Catalyst

An early Peter Peryer photograph we have always loved is one from 1976 called Dog. Looking like an illustration for a Gothic spelling book, it was taken with a cheap plastic Diana camera which lends it that distinctively moody character. A while back Peter began work on an alphabet of photographs and whatever develops with the larger project, he has definitely nailed D. We saw a small print of Dog in Peter’s bathroom when we were in New Plymouth and it turns out the dog belonged to artist Seraphine Pick's family. Seraphine was about 12 at the time Peter took the photograph and was living in Russell.

Thinking of our readers and your thirst for knowledge, we rang Seraphine and asked the critical question.

OTN: So tell us, what was the dog’s name.
Seraphine: (long pause) Dog, I’m pretty sure its name was Dog.

You can see a higher resolution image of Dog here in the Auckland Art Gallery's collection