Reviews for Ghosts in the Landscape:
F11 Magazine, Issue 6, 2011
Extract from f11 Magazine (PDF)
The extract can be read here.
New Zealand Herald
A stunning exploration in black and white of the New Zealand countryside and the spirits haunting it.
Sometimes the ghosts are merely the abandoned houses and rusting cars that add colour to many a pastoral scene and by their presence hint at lost dreams.
Others are memorials to wars or disasters that serve as reminders that their tranquil setting has sometimes been the scene of a bloody tragedy.
And then there are the landscapes themselves, their present day beauty not quite disguising the fact thatthey have been created by the brutal forces of volcano and earthquake, storm and flood, burn-off and bulldozer.
Sheehan’s images bring these ghosts to mind with extraordinary power.
I showed the book to the Herald senior photographer, a man rarely impressed by coffee table books, and he handed it back with a one-word judgment, “Outstanding.”
— Jim Eagles, New Zealand Herald, June 1, 2012
Large sharp beautifully produced black and white images dripping with sublime romanticism of ruin: decayed farm buildings, abandoned houses, shipwrecks, mining relics, rusting cars, roadside crosses, all set beneath big skies, dramatic horizons and the misty profile of distant hills.
— Sally Blundel, the Listener
Review for New Zealand Landscapes: Northland to Antarctica:
by Grant Sheehan (with music by Rhian Sheehan).
This book was honoured as the best pictorial book in this year’s Cathay Pacific Travel Media Awards and it’s easy to see why.
Grant Sheehan’s pictures are superb but what makes this book really special is the fact that they show a marvellous mix of landscapes – some familiar, most from well off the usual photographic track – which highlight what a diversely beautiful country this is.
Even the photographers I asked to offer some expert comment – usually fairly dismissive of such books – agreed the photos were “pretty good” . And to an amateur snapper like me some of the pictures are simply awe-inspiring.
To comment on the music I turned to entertainment writer Scott Kara who loved it, commenting: “Rhian Sheehan takes ambient music to a higher level as he brings together glacial movements of sound, beautiful soaring drones, and the noise of rain and breaking waves to create a unique sonic landscape.”
The combination of Grant’s photos and Rhian’s music paints a beautiful and evocative portrait of our landscape.
— Jim Eagles, New Zealand Herald, June 21, 2011