A photography collaboration of the most creative kind

Peter Peryer one of New Zealand's most significant, and intriguing, art photographers collaborated with Rialto Channel to bring viewers a series of documentaries about the lives of those who see life through a lens.  Join Peter as he introduces  the films Wednesdays 8.30pm throughout April on Rialto Channel.

INSIDE OUT: THE PEOPLE’S ART PROJECT
We get to travel the globe with French artist JR as he motivates entire communities to define their most important causes with passionate displays of giant black and white portraits pasted in the street. From Tunisia to Haiti, North Dakota to Pakistan, the film follows individuals and communities pasting their portraits in the streets in which they live. “This documentary didn’t grab me immediately,” says Peryer, “but I’d like to know more as it seems like such a fascinating project. Did the project come to New Zealand? If so could someone please tell me more!”

HER AIM IS TRUE
The film brings together musicians and rock photographers for an inspiring journey into the life of an unlikely rock 'n' roll photographer. Jini Dellaccio has been credited for visualising punk before it had a name and embodying indie before it was cool, and it has been said that she set the standard for rock photography and more importantly, for being a strong woman in the male-dominated world of rock. “This documentary was fascinating,” says Peryer, “especially when you saw how this talented woman effectively ‘loosened up’ the way musicians were photographed for the first time ever.” He says it’s admirable how respected and much loved Dellaccio was as a woman and as an artist, and that it is important that films keep bringing to the world forgotten talents, more and more of whom are being rediscovered all the time.

MAPPLETHORPE: LOOK AT THE PICTURES
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's fascinating documentary, Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures takes a refreshing new approach to the work of iconoclastic American artist Robert Mapplethorpe, and the provocateur’s never-ending obsession with fame. It parades a multitude of the artist's photographs and due to its very recent release is “both very new and very, very good,” says Peryer. “I love the way that the film explains clearly that Mapplethorpe’s work didn’t just come out of nowhere,” he adds, “and that it was part of an artistic trajectory. He was standing on the shoulders of others that came before him and it honours that.”

GET THE PICTURE
This superb documentary charts the story of centenarian John G Morris, a legend of photojournalism whose unerring eye for the best shot has moved and changed the world. Morris, former Picture Editor of LIFE magazine, the Washington Post and New York Times, was also instrumental in the early years of Magnum with his friends and peers Robert Capa and Henri Cartier Bresson.  For Peryer, this film was particularly affecting as it touched on his own first encounters with great photography. “I was born in 1941,” he says, “and LIFE magazine played a major role in my childhood. My parents subscribed and it was one of the ways that New Zealanders viewed the world, especially through their extremely high quality photographic essays.” 

MOMENTO PHOTO BOOKS PRESENTS LIFE THROUGH THE LENS WITH PETER PERYER  WEDNESDAYS 8.30PM IN APRIL ON RIALTO CHANNEL

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