Drowned Forest, Kai Iwi

Drowned Forest, Kai Iwi

Like many of Peter Peryer’s photographs, Drowned Forest, Kai Iwi draws our attention through its sense of mystery and curious forms. In this soggy graveyard, disarrayed stalks of mānuka stagnate. What once was shrubland near Kai Iwi lakes, Northland, has been drowned by rising freshwater. Advancing sandhills block streams and cause lakes to form; the meandering margins where the lake meets the shrubland offer bleak yet beautiful vistas of smooth, lifeless trees. Throughout his photographic practice, Peryer demonstrated a fascination with the natural sciences and the play between order and randomness, inviting the viewer to examine the angles, textures and patterns that often go unnoticed in daily life.

Captured during an expedition to the Northland in 2013, the disorder of the scene of branches belies Peryer’s careful premeditation and acute observation of his subject matter. Peryer took the utmost care to compose his images, pre-visualising potential targets long before shooting them through the lens. The intense focus on these organic forms encourages us to think twice about what we see—why did he choose this particular section of wetland? What denizens of the deep may be lurking beneath? It is perhaps because they suggest a greater story that his images are so alluring.


— Amy Lewis, 2022