Alison Turner's Vanscapes gives every New Zealand landscape the same companion: the edge of a camper-van window. Mountains, water and countryside change from image to image, but the frame keeps the journey visible. Instead of removing all evidence of the traveller, the series lets the viewer sit inside the vehicle and look outward with the photographer.
An iPhone and a repeated passenger-window frame
Turner described making the photographs with an iPhone from inside her rental camper van during three weeks in New Zealand. In her account published by Lenscratch, she explains that she photographed from the driver's seat while using the passenger window to frame the view. The repeated viewpoint connects otherwise different places and makes the series feel like a journey rather than a set of unrelated scenic stops. [1]
The interrupted trip behind the series
The project grew out of a difficult start. The contemporary account says her cameras, clothes and other belongings were stolen early in the visit, leaving limited equipment available. The iPhone was a practical tool for continuing the work. That history explains the choice without turning theft into a romantic requirement for creativity or suggesting that losing equipment is what made the photographs worthwhile. [2]
Explore more: Lake Wakatipu near Glenorchy; a different photographic approach to Iceland.
Compare what changes inside the same border
Look at how each landscape sits inside the same border. A lake can fill most of the opening, while cloud or mountain may leave more empty space. The van's interior creates a near layer, giving distant scenery a human scale. Because the framing idea is consistent, those changes become easier to notice across the collection than they would in photographs with no recurring element.
The idea can be tried close to home: choose a repeated frame such as a window, doorway or shelter and see how different views fit within it. Photograph while stationary or as a passenger, and notice reflections and obstructions rather than assuming they must all disappear. Turner's earlier US travels with her dog Max form part of her wider biography; that history does not establish his presence in the photographs from this separate New Zealand trip.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- My Modern Metropolis
- This 4K New Zealand Timelapse Transports You to Lord of the Rings Land
- New Zealand Company To Offer World’s First Hot Air Balloon Skiing
- Spectacular Footage Train Plowing Through Deep Snow in Arthur's Pass, New Zealand
- Lake Nelson It's The Clearest Lake In The World
- Hobbiton - the Real Hobbit Village in Matamata, New Zealand
- Visit The Unique Waitomo Caves in New Zealand
- Lake Wakatipu near Glenorchy
- a different photographic approach to Iceland
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