''I like seeing people's faces when they realise what they're actually looking at. A lot of people think they are traditional landscapes.''
In fact, his photos use the human body's nude form to emulate landscape, digitally layering photos of the human body to create images where land and the human figure are intertwined.
Varcoe's work carried on ''that very long tradition of metaphor and analogy between land, earth, body and figure'', Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery general manager Maurice Watson said.
''By using the purest aspect of the body in its nude form, body and skin evoke the shape and texture of the land with layers of ambiguity and mystery.''
Varcoe (30), of Invercargill, whose ''Bodyscapes'' exhibition runs at Central Stories until September 6, took up photography after he left school and started doing traditional landscapes and minimalist photography as well as wedding and other commercial work.
He then decided to try traditional nude photography. One day he was ''looking along the model's back'' and realised its form and shape could be compared with the contours of conventional landscapes. Tiring of traditional photography by that stage, he ''found the joy again'' and switched to his current art form about four years ago, now revelling in creating something of an illusion.
His work is also distinctive for the long exposures - up to 30 seconds - he sometimes uses.
-''Bodyscapes'' runs at Central Stories until September 6.
