Culture

By Geoff Dale
Publisher: HarperCollins
(3/5)

At first glance, Press Pass appears to be a book that would reside comfortably on a coffee table. However, primary assumptions, as Elizabeth Bennet and George W. Bush can attest, oft deceive. Here instead is a book of substance and history that provides insight into some of the most defining events in New Zealand in the latter half of the twentieth century. One only has to glance at the cover photo – which depicts the Armed Offenders Squad throwing a cat off a balcony before forcing their way into a house – to realiSe that a position on a coffee table with a pile of House & Garden magazines would not do the book justice. 
Geoff Dale began his career as a press photographer with The New Zealand Herald in 1970. Since then, he has covered such events as the Mount Erebus disaster and the fatal French attack on the Rainbow Warrior; furthermore, the New Zealand politics students among us will remember that infamous photograph of the merrily defeated ‘Fish and Chip Brigade’. Each photograph in the book is accompanied by a description explaining where, why, and how Dale was able to take the shot. The mini-blurbs are comprehensive and often outline the story behind the photo that would usually be explained by the article itself. 
The variety and spread of subject matter in this book is unsurprising given the length of Dale's career. Often haunting and rarely dull, Dale takes the monochromatic medium of photography and experiments with form, composition, angles and light to create a number of poetic pictures. In one, he straps his $15 000 lens to the top of a Pitts Special plane to achieve an impressive shot looking back into the cockpit and beyond. Thankfully, the lens survived. In many of his portraits, the character and personality of the figure photographed comes through via the use of a related prop or other framing feature. 
Press Pass is much more than a book that can be put on your coffee table and admired from afar. Throughout its pages, Dale proves the importance of being both a skilled photographer and being in the right place at the right time.