Pays perdu is a book of photographs taken in New Zealand by Amaury da Cunha between January and June 2020. Having left for the antipodes to write a story on a writing residency, the author suddenly found himself stranded on the island because of the pandemic. He nevertheless continued his text, which revolves around a ghost story. To escape this isolation he also began to photograph his daily life in the city of Wellington where he lived. He made a great many images, with no particular project other than to let himself be carried by visions that resonated with what he was writing. In this period of fears and uncertainties, the need to think the world differently has perhaps never been so great. "I photograph as if I were committing a break-in; at the same time I have the feeling of gathering something offered by chance. The image, always turned towards the outside, also continues its journey inside ourselves to find its place of origin, that of dreams and ideas."