Desert Remnants, Pouto Peninsula

The Pouto Peninsula is a long, remote spit of dunes and farmland reaching down to the mouth of the Kaipara Harbour, south of Dargaville in Northland. The wind works its sand into endless ripples, and the remains of old trees surface and vanish as the dunes move.

Two weathered branches rise from the sand in the last light of day, one pale and sculpted, one dark and worn, beneath a sky fading from lilac into soft pink. Stephen Milner composed the pair against the empty dune to hold the quiet between them.

The photograph is one of three in Silent Echoes: A Desert's Whispers, the series awarded Third Prize in Landscape at the Fine Art Photography Awards 2024 (Professional). Its companion pieces are also available in this collection.

The image is printed as a wide panorama in two finishes:

• Floating-frame metallic canvas — a luminous metallic surface that floats inside the frame, in black, white, natural, brown, antique gold or antique silver. 102 × 51 cm (40″ × 20″).
• Frameless acrylic panel — printed under glass-clear acrylic on a hidden back mount that floats it just off the wall. 100 × 50 cm (40″ × 20″).

Part of Stephen Milner's New Zealand fine art landscape collection.