Magical Wandless

At hospital, Roger Wandless is the guy who has us close our eyes and disconnect, for a time, from the world around us.

Ideally, when he rouses us, we're healthier in some way.

The English-born anaesthetist is also a photographer captivated by the south; one who would have us open our eyes wide and connect in a more vivid and personal way with our part of the world.

This is also a healing thing.

Wandless spends his time in Wanaka and Invercargill and the drive between his two homes helped him develop what has become a typically widescreen appreciation of State Highway 6. All of it, from Bluff to Blenheim.

His new book is devoted to the highway.

He'll tell you it's "if not the most beautiful drive in the world, then one of the most beautiful".

State Highway 6 seeks to entice us to this discovery and lure us out of our cars.

His spare text begins with Paul Simon's gentle encouragement: Slow down, you move too fast ...

Sometimes his photos evoke a dreamlike state of their own. But it's not an indolent restfulness.

His camera of preference is a Lindhof Technorama, which takes panoramas and his photos are often composed "to try to take the eye on a journey" .

Part of that is balance -- "and balance isn't necessarily symmetry".

It can be light and shade, space and substance, themes and contrasts As befits a series of photos from a highway that passes through nine of the 10 national parks of the mainland, and some of the most wild, dramatic and pristine landscapes in the country, it's often a striking collection.

But not every image is grace and grandeur.

Wandless pays his respects to such unprepossessing human endeavours as the Pomona St takeaways, New World in Elles Rd, and the Invercargill bus depot, potholes and all.

"I suppose we're becoming more aware that building aren't there forever.

These are the here-and-now. In 20 years' time they might not be." Worth capturing, then. And in their own way these more modest images are capable of drawing an emotional response.

"Some people remember those takeaways, and how you could get a $1 ice cream from the shop across the road." Among Wandless' favourite photos is a golden, very hazy view of sheep pens near Mossburn. Amid such still, serene pictorial company, it's a noisy, smelly sort of photo.

"Well, we're a nation that has to make a living. I try to reflect that." He first came to New Zealand from the Lake District in England in 1994, and four years later he emigrated permanently.

"Everyone was down on Southland back in the 1990s, but I loved it here and wanted to show people what they were missing." Not just faraway people.

"I've possibly got the advantage of coming from abroad, and I guess from travelling for my job, in the different perspective. I think I can see some of the things that locals might take for granted." He yearned to interpret what he saw, and to communicate it, not by way of guidebook but something more personal.

Those who adhere to the "cliched and convenient" tourist loops miss many of the best, authentic aspects of New Zealand.

Give this landscape just half a chance, and it will arrest you.

"When you're in special places and nature just puts on a show for you, most people will stand and watch.

"Whether it's a sunset, or a wild storm, or waves crashing away ...  it's irresistable."

- © Fairfax NZ News