By Roger Donaldson and Hamish Keith
Random House, $49.95 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

IN HIS foreword Hamish Keith says: “We live in a cloud of pragmatic photographic images. The practical uses of the medium tend to limit our view of its possibilities – if our experience of painting was mediated by signwriting, we might see it as predominantly only for the making of visual messages. Clear way the noisy swarm of our daily encounters with photographs and photography becomes art again.”

By Iain Sharp
AUP, $64.99 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

MAJOR Charles Heaphy: artist, explorer, propagandist, cabbage grower, surveyor, soldier, Member of Parliament, Commissioner of Native Reserves, Victoria Cross. Like many early settlers Heaphy seemed to throw himself into various roles. It is his art for which he is most remembered, although this wasn’t always the case. As he drew for much of his life, this biography principally focuses on his art while discussing the various other roles he played. It’s a great read, written in an easy style, with bits of light-hearted humour and tongue-in-cheek modern reappraisal.