“The articulate audible voice of the past when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.”
Thomas Carlyle
Peter Ranyard is a formally trained commercial photographer and fine artist who has maintained a professional arts practice for more than 25 years. He has had extensive experience collaborating on projects in the fine art, corporate, institutional and private sectors in Australia and overseas. He is currently working on an image library Archive 555 to be officially launched in 2021.
“Photographer and historian alike are storytellers who must choose what to include and what to leave out, how close to stand to their subjects, how to frame their tales.”
Martha A. Sandweiss
Peter has had a solo exhibition Coast at CIT in 2012, a two-person exhibition Material Substance and the Lightness of Touch with the ceramicist Sarit Cohen at Form Gallery in 2013, Beneath the Surface at M16 Artspace in 2014, Impermanence at the Firestation Gallery (Armadale Melbourne) in August 2015, the solo exhibition River, at the Huw Davies Gallery at Photoaccess in September 2016 and the group exhibition Memoria Platea at M16 Artspace in November/December 2016. In both 2017, 2018 and 2019 he held an Open Studio as part of the Design Canberra Festival. In 2018 he was part of a Canon Roadshow projecting images at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and a member of the Heroes Fundraiser at PhotoAccess. In 2019 Peter undertook the Joya: AiR artist residency program in Granada, Spain. In 2021 Peter exhibited with the photographers Mac Nichols and Mark Mohell in Plein Air High Plain.
Peter's photography features the object and the landscape, focussing on history, memory and the built environment and how they effect and contrast with nature. His work is seated in traditional methodology but has a contemporary relevance with his use of digital processes and techniques. The photographs contribute to a conversation as to what is the inherent meaning of our material world, and how and why objects have such a fascination for us, as possessions, as historical indicators, as part of place and as emotional connections. Even though many of us live detached from the natural world in built environments, governed by technology, we are still able to understand the powerful pull of the narrative created by made and natural objects. We can relate to these themes with ease, understanding that something as commonplace as a letterbox can convey ideas inherent in our own lives; home, partnership, nurture and inevitable loss. The symbols themselves need little explanation, they are meant to be accessible to all, to illustrate the intrinsic human connection to nature, space and place and the role we play. One of our deepest needs is for a sense of identity and belonging and there is a human need to feel somehow immersed in a chosen place. It is not simply what we see, but it is a way of seeing and how we interpret. Edward W Said intimated in his treatise “Invention, memory and Place”
..there has been a burgeoning interest in two overlapping areas of the humanities and social sciences: memory and geography or, more specifically, the study of human space.
Memory is at the heart of identity. It builds links with faith, country and tradition. It is altogether fallible and in many cases is an invention and easily manipulated. The idea of nostalgia is very strong for people who have left their childhood home. There are indeed multiple memories surrounding us and the construction of a common narrative is ever present.
“It is a pity indeed to travel and not get this essential sense of landscape values. You do not need a sixth sense for it. It is there if you just close your eyes and breathe softly through your nose; you will hear the whispered message, for all landscapes ask the same question in the same whisper. 'I am watching you -- are you watching yourself in me?”
Peter Ranyard is represented by Archive 555
