For the Love of the Country: Celebrating farming in New Zealand

(Hardback)

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Description

This gorgeous collection of photographs, accompanied by extended captions and insightful interviews, is a visual celebration of the New Zealand farmer and the landscape in which they live and work.

It tells the stories of the people who are the backbone of farming in Aotearoa New Zealand people who love this land and love what they do with it. Alan Gibson, a much-awarded photojournalist, was raised on a remote hill country farm. Ever since picking up his first camera as a child, he has wanted to record the people he grew up around and the world they inhabit. He knew the subject of this book intimately; he just had to find the right people to tell the New Zealand farming story.

Through Alans lens we enter the world of dairy farmers, sheep farmers, deer farmers, horticulturists, aquaculturists, beekeepers and viticulturists, among others. From the air, in close-up or in panorama, the photographs focus on the landscapes and people that provide New Zealands superior primary produce, from oysters, mussels, kiwifruit and venison to beef, lamb, eggs and seasonal fruit and vegetables.

Reviews

Gibson, who grew up on a cattle and sheep station in Waikato, hopes that images like this from his new book, For the Love of the Country, will help city dwellers better understand farming life: We want to bridge that urban-rural disconnect. * The Good Weekend *
A SPECTACULAR new photo book featuring images by award-winning photojournalist Alan Gibson captures the stories of New Zealands farming community. Through Gibsons lens we enter the world of dairy farmers, sheep farmers, deer farmers, horticulturists, aquaculturists, beekeepers and viticulturists, among other * Newcastle Herald *
From beef cattle to bees, dairying and deer to mussels and oysters, kiwi fruit to chickens, Chinese growers to cropping, horses to lambing, farm dogs to farm characters every page reveals a new insight. * The Senior *
What a book. There is some beautiful imagery. There is farm dogs, cropping, kiwi fruit, lambing, sales yards. It remarkable. Glen Lyon Station in Canterbury, some of the most beautiful images. Anyone would love it. Its a beautiful coffee table book -- On The Land with Rachel Smiley * NZ Today First Light *
Celebrates farming in New Zealand and those who dedicate their lives to feeding the nation. Helps to bridge that gap in understanding between the urban population and those who produce their food * Today FM REX Rural Focus *
In a new book, former Herald staff photographer, Alan Gibson, has captured the essence of rural life in New Zealand * Canvas - The New Zealand Herald *
A book about farming has to be as big as the sky to do the subject justice, and For the Love of the Country (160 pages , 254 x 254mm) totally does it justice. Tauranga photographer Gibson travels far and wide, on land and in water (mussel farming!), to bring us classic images of people who labour long and hard in the great big outdoors. Awesome book. * Newsroom *
Whether it's a low-angled beam that kisses a horse's nose, a silhouette of a dairy farmer at dawn or a wine-maker almost in darkness sampling a vintage, the images in [Alan Gibsons] latest hardback book are beautiful works on their own, and as a collective, they provide us with a wonderful view over the farm fence of our nation's closest neighbour. * Outback Magazine *
Stunning images, accompanied by insightful interviews, capture the experience of life on the land. * Kiwi Gardener *
A nice balance of the visual and the written The book largely features the many excellent photographs Alan captured but theres fat captions to photos and interviews that give a judicious balance of the visual and written. Alan Gibson has been awarded NZ Press Photographer of the Year title junior and senior, six times.. * Waikanae Watch *
An impressive book. * Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations of New Zealand *

Author Bio

For more than 25 years Alan Gibson has drawn on his passion for storytelling working as a photojournalist both in NZ and the UK. Alan spent most of that time with The New Zealand Herald covering the central North Island, allowing him to record life in the landscapes and communities he loved.