‘‘Land — Recent Work’’, Eric Schusser
(Hullabaloo Art Space, Cromwell)
‘‘COLOUR catches the view and pleases the eye,’’ writes photographer Eric Schusser of his latest collection, ‘‘but black and white conveys the soul and pleases the heart.’’
Standing surrounded by his photographs, a series of windows on to majestic vistas and calm havens, you will understand entirely what he means. The South Island is full of glorious views, a different type of beauty everywhere you look; it’s always spectacular when rendered in full colour — but Schusser’s blackandwhite images become far more than a photographic record of a stunning landscape. Somehow, in the absence of colour, an intense quiet seems to drop over each scene, everything becomes stills, and you find yourself looking into it, rather than merely at it.
The time of day, even the year in which the photograph was taken, shrinks in significance as you mentally fall into each scene, engulfed in a sense of timelessness, part of an eternal story. You might be standing on the banks of the Clutha River Reflection now, 10 years in the past or 100 years in the future. As you look through the bare tree trunks of Park Fog #1, gazing into the encroaching mist as the trees in the distance slowly slip away like ghosts — or emerge from the fog as you walk forwards into clarity and cognisance — endless possibilities unfold. The scenes might be tense and eerie, or it could be utter serenity and peace, depending on the mindset you bring to what you see.