The Icon

Though I can't say why, I used to think that most locations a photographer found and photographed was a hard-to-find off-the-beaten-track kinda place. Especially if the subject was iconic.

I soon learnt. Photographers are lazy.

After spending much of the afternoon trying to find a copy of this photo I finally found it online - thanks books for not making it easy, and thanks Peter for blogging it.

I was surprised to discover just how easy this location was to find. I wasn't even looking for it. But as soon as I saw it I knew this was where Peter Peryer once stood and made the above image.

As I've stated on numerous occasions - here and there, on- and off-line - I'm quite comfortable with overtly referencing another photographer/artist, so long as it has something of my own spin on the work.

What I don't like is work that very obviously references another photographer to the degree that it may as well be a copy. It's that whole subject matter vs style issue (more of which in a couple of weeks possibly).

Naturally knowing that I was where Peter Peryer once stood and made the above image, I had to take my own version.

Also naturally, I didn't have a copy of Peryer's original so I had to go on memory - and was obviously limited to the camera gear and film I had.

So nasty cross-processed rubbish - though scanned nicely to obscure that fact.

And using a longer lens to get a closer approximation of the Peryer.

Change the camera, but keep with the cross-processed muck - honestly why didn't people tell me what a waste of good film it was?! Nice wildlife all the same. Back to a standard lens so that was about as close as I could get.

Then a couple of years later, and in summer rather than winter.

And lastly at the beginning of this year. Interesting changes. Getting the second image was a feat of determination - holding the Hasselblad above me such that I could still see the focus screen, while simultaneously ensuring that neither I nor the camera ended up in the water we were perilously close to.


I'm not sure that I can say that I really stamped my mark on any of these shots. For me they're all a bit obvious and uninspired. Still it was quite cool to discover the spot and continue to photograph it. No doubt I'll continue to do so.

And no, I'm not going to tell you where it is. Do your own detective work lazybones.