Geoff Park “Theatre Country”, in Theatre Country: Essays on landscape and whenua, Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2006, pp. 113-127.

New Zealand scenery is one of beauty. The New Zealand tourism board markets our country as ‘100% pure.’ It has been said that New Zealand is the only country in the world in which nature and the environment are an integral part of the culture. ( NZ Herald) Being a tourist is about experiencing a place first hand.

Gray has been said to ‘make nature into a painting and turn it into a commodity,’ The idea of nature as an object has a large place in society, especially here in New Zealand where the landscape is a commodity. From young we are taught to protect the land we honour it and consider it an important part of our national identity. Artistic expression plays an important role in changing the way we perceive ourselves, in relation to work we live in. In our national Museum Te Papa, a whole floor is dedicated to the Art made by New Zealanders for New Zealanders. Most of which, is New Zealand landscape paintings. We are a nation obsessed with our scenery and the beauty the land holds.


Scenery is what many a tourist visits New Zealand for. The camera is a tool to capture ourselves within the landscape. Capturing our own unique experiences, it becomes ‘evidence that your eyes had been there.’ Through promotion such as Lord of the Rings, and the 100% Pure campaign, we are visited more frequently by tourists wanting to experience, for themselves our scenery. The reader states ‘To the picturesque traveller on the quest for the perfect scene, a Claude Glass was as indispensable as a camera or camcorder are to today’s tourists.’ Many of us in Western society seek to have our picture taken to have an image of our experience ‘made real’ by photography. Thomas Greys statement ‘making nature into a painting values it as a commodity.’ This is true of New Zealand, by having our landscapes in a film people can view the scenes, they then may want to come, and experience the place for themselves. Our picturesque landscape has become as what Gray described a commodity.



Sontag, Susan, On Photography, Picador 2001, pg.151

Gary Taylor: Collaboration called for on major environment issues. 15 June 2009. New Zealand Herald. 16 July 2009 .