Hunt for eternal soul of the true Pacific

Pacific: The Boundless Ocean
By Alain Cheneviere
Telleri $115.95
Reviewed by Barbara Harris

The blurb of this coffee-table book grandly states that international photographer Alain Cheneviere "has chosen to hunt down the original, traditional and eternal soul of the true Pacific." An ambitious quest, indeed.

Divided into five sections - Australia, New Guinea, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia - the book is a heavyweight at 2.5kg. And the size-does-matter format provides a perfect vehicle for Cheneviere's exceptional images of Oceania.

Cheneviere, an inveterate traveller who speaks nine languages, has an enviable track record. He's had 17 collections of his pictures published and has shot several films for European television. With this sort of pedigree the expectations are high. As a photographer he delivers, particularly in the shots of Papua New Guinea tribesmen.

Although the captions are good, it's a pity that he should take such a broad, factual and didactic overview with the text. Cheneviere doesn't bother to tell us what he felt when he witnessed extraordinary rituals in Papua New Guinea like the dance of the ghostly "mud men" in Goroka.

When it comes to New Zealand, where the emphasis is on the North Island and Maori traditions, it feels like a bit of a whirlwind tour and fails to impart the "soul" of the place. This is not to say the historical and geological data throughout the book isn't relevant or informative. Where his pictures show understanding and passion, the text is not the poetry the blurb promises.

* * *

Samoa: Pacific Pride
By Graeme Lay, Tony Murrow and Malama Meleisea
Pasifika Press $39.95

Staying with the Pacific, Samoa comes under the microscope in this introduction to the 13 tropical islands, their people and their customs.

It reveals a society that has absorbed ideas from the modern world without losing its tradition and sense of family ('aiga). A matter-of-fact primer for those unfamiliar with the region.