In 2016, award-winning photojournalist Birgit Krippner spent 26 days at sea on cargo ship the Spirit of Auckland, photographing the wide open seas and skies as the ship made its way through the Panama Canal, to Columbia and on to Philadelphia in the United States, where she disembarked.

The Austrian-born artist had a body of work from that trip but when she and her kiwi husband, Murray Nash, moved to their new home in St Bathans, she kept noticing similarities between her seascapes and the landscape surrounding her..

“We moved to this house 15 months ago, and early on I felt like being bought back in time,” Birgit said. 

“I felt like I was back on the ship.”

A photo she took of an empty Central Otago rural road reminded her of an earlier image taken of the wake of the cargo ship, and she kept seeing similarities in her new work and the images she photographed at sea.

Those similarities led her to put together a book, PAREIDOLIA - SYNDROME, a collection of facing pages of photography, with clear similarities between those on the ocean and under Central Otago’s wide skies.

Similarities between photos Birgit took at sea and those in the Central Otago landscape led her to publish a book - “It really fell into place,” she said.

Pareidolia is the tendency to perceive a meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none.

Birgit said she is dyslexic, so she perceives things differently. 

“I think photography is my language - it’s much stronger than words. It was difficult for me growing up but I found my voice and I would not wish differently. It was a weakness, but it became a strength.”

The stunning coffee table book is just one work in Birgit’s extensive portfolio, as she has worked on assignments for some of the world’s best-known and well-respected publications, including the New York Times and the New York Times magazine. 

“Maybe 12 years ago, I built my website, and I was invited to Berlin and Denmark to exhibit, and somehow New York Times and Wall Street News and Bloomberg Journal and Foreign Policy found me,” she said. 

“It happens like that - I don’t know when it happens, it could happen tomorrow or in six months’ time. I get a phone call to tell me what it is about and if I can do it and two or three days later, flights are booked and I’m off.”

Those projects have included photographing Kurdish-Iranian journalist, human rights defender, writer and film producer Behrouz Boochani (who now lives in Christchurch) for the New York Times; a trip through Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway; and time spent in Israel and Palestine.

More recently, since she and Murray returned from New York to New Zealand in 2003, she has worked with Maori activist and artist Tame Iti, and photographed a series with Ngāi Tūhoe iwi.

“All my projects, I feel stretched,” Birgit said. “Everytime I go on assignment, I feel stretched as a human being.”

Facing pages of Birgit Krippner’s book, PAREIDOLIA - SYNDROME, show the resemblances between her recent work and photographs she took while on a cargo ship for 26 days. PHOTO: Supplied 

Birgit’s website can be found at birgitkrippner.com and she appears on The Outlet Podcast - The Voice of Central, today.