PHOTOGRAMS
NEW ZEALAND PHOTOGRAPHY
1899 - 1923
1899 PHOTOGRAMS
PHOTOGRAPHY IN NEW ZEALAND
By JOSIAH MARTIN Page 34
The progress of artistic photography in New Zealand has received, during the past year, considerable impetus from the energy which has been manifested by the most active camera clubs in the North and South Islands.
At the Auckland Industrial and Mining Exhibition, there was an excellent display of portraiture, principally by local professionals; but as the executive failed to reserve space for purely pictorial photography, the various associations in the Colony were not represented.
W.H. Bartlett's fine collection commanded general admiration and well deserved the first award and gold medal, it would certainly have attracted attention at an International Exhibition upon a more ambitious scale.
The Wellington Camera Club conducted the second Inter-Colonial Exhibition held under its auspices with very conspicuous success. It brought together a very representative collection of the best work of Australia and New Zealand, and this was supplemented by some very fine examples of animal Photograms, by Charles Reid, of Wishaw, and some masterpieces by H.P. Robinson, Horsley Hinton and Worsley Benison. In spite of so many formidable competitors, the special prize for the finest Photogram in the exhibition was awarded to J.A. Heginbotham, the energetic Secretary of the Club.
The Nelson Camera Club made a special exhibition to celebrate the opening of the Bishop Suter Memorial Art Gallery, and was solely supported by some very fine work contributed by the Sister Societies of the Colony. As representative of the progress of artistic photography, it was the finest yet held, and the high standard of excellence displayed was very encouraging.
Dunedin as an active center follows, not in merit but in time, the northern cities, and the Dunedin Photographic Society were able to secure for their exhibition the best of the work which had been so much admired in the north, and to supplement it with a specimen show of their own.
Thus the hearty rivalry between four active societies has been the means of stimulating the enthusiasm of the ever increasing army of amateur photographers, and raising the standard to a very high degree of excellence.
The attractive scenery and unique natural wonders of these favored islands bring to its shores an annually increasing number of visitors, many of whom are also amateur photographers. The number of tourists who come provided with hand-cameras of all descriptions is abundant evidence of the immense popularity of this delightful means of recreation. In fact, the indispensable camera is now regarded as an unmistakable sign of the traveler, and it is only the "much traveled" who is wearied of "all that sort of thing" and votes it all "an awful bore, you know", who stalks through strange scenes carrying nothing more than his heavy stick, pitying those poor unfortunates who burden themselves with "Kodaks", and who, he says, go through an "awful lot of trouble for an awful lot of disappointments, doncher-know" and it may be safely conjectured that the work of such has always been an utter failure.
The scenic photographer who has hitherto made a good living through his camera, now finds his "occupation gone". The tourist, who was his best customer, now makes his own Photogram, and the wants of the general public are well satisfied with the reprints which can be sold so cheaply, and by the excellent reproductions which adorn the pages of the weekly newspaper.
That the Press is rapidly usurping and absorbing the business of the landscape photographer is evidenced by the fact that an important Southern paper sent a special war correspondent and photographer to Samoa - Malcolm Ross, a gentleman of wide experience, whose reputation as a traveler and mountaineer is equaled by his record for artistic photography.
One of our artists, who was recently making stock negatives among the gorges and mountain passes of the West Coast, was frequently asked by passing tourists "What paper he represented", as they would like to get a copy. But when their orders were solicited for Photograms of the scenery they were passing through, the proposal was evidently considered as a sign of lunacy, for showing their own pocket cameras they vanished from the scene.
1900 PHOTOGRAMS
THE PHOTOGRAPHER IN NEW ZEALAND
AN APPEAL FOR MORE PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORDS
By JOSIAH MARTIN Page 51
Editor of The New Zealand Photographer
The Island Colony of New Zealand may justly be considered a "Paradise for Photographers", for here Nature has been lavish beyond measure with her gifts of grace and beauty.
In Alpine heights she boldly challenges comparison with Switzerland and the Tyrol; in fjords and sounds with Norway; in lake and coast-line with sunny Italy; and in volcano and geyser with Iceland and America. In her forests and glens she brooks no rival, but proudly claims pre-eminence for a matchless beauty all her own.
The grandeur, sublimity, and loveliness of her diversified scenery has inspired both artists and poets with an enthusiastic desire to reproduce or describe their impressions of the sweet influences of Nature. Her photographers have always found here such a wealth of subjects and such an in exhaustible field, that they have not yet felt any necessity to study the subtle refinements of artistic expression; and as a consequence, their works exhibit more of the realist than the idealist.
Since the advent of the colonist, the face of the country is being rapidly transformed.
The early explorers and travelers, who so justly extolled the wondrous wealth of overhanging foliage which fringed the indented shores of an extensive coast-line, would be surprised to witness the startling changes which a few years have wrought.
Sea coasts and harbor cliffs were then richly ornamented with massive clumps of glossy green, which, about the Christmas season, became glorious with a splendid profusion of crimson blossoms and soft white leaf buds; exhibiting in their combination some of the finest color effects ever pictured or described. This was due to the Pohutukawa, a truly handsome and symmetrical tree, which seemed to grow out from the sides and summits of lofty cliffs, with great gnarled branches sweeping down to the water's edge, kissing the wave crests, as, dashing against the rocky shore, they leaped upward to the dense canopy of overarching boughs.
The new colonist was not long in discovering that the curiously curved stems and twisted branches of the pohutukawa were particularly adapted for "knees" in shipbuilding, and as this is a very important industry to a maritime community, such a quantity of immediately available material was speedily utilized, and the wooded steeps and picturesque inlets were soon denuded of their beauty.
Now the artist or photographer in search of the beautiful in Nature has considerable trouble in finding "pretty bits" of coast and harbor where pristine loveliness has not suffered from the axe of the prowling boatman in search of crooked timbers.
The primeval forest, with its ancient and unique flora - conspicuous among which towers the noble and venerable kauri, those ancient forest kings that rival in antiquity even the Pyramids of Egypt - is disappearing before the inroad of the emigrant and the gold-seeker.
The "boundless continuity of shade", without its equal for luxuriance in any other clime, has ever been a delightful retreat for travelers, whose eyes have grown tired of the arid plains or monotonous bush of the Australian continent; but it is now so greatly reduced in area, that in a few years it will be known only by the few Photograms which have fortunately been secured, and by the works of those painters who have been fortunate enough to transfer to canvas some faint idea of its subtle charm of color and form.
Among the fairest scenes on earth, likewise doomed to destruction, are some of the glorious gorges of New Zealand - stupendous rents or clefts in the great mountain ranges - clothed perennially in luxuriant forest from base to summit.
When glowing with the fiery blossoms of the rata, or spangled with the starry clusters of the clematis, the sight always evokes the unstinted admiration of all beholders.
But alas for the permanence of these "beauty spots". They are being stripped of their finery by the pioneers of settlement.
The rough bridle track through the steep pass has to be widened for the pack-horse; then a roadway has to be formed at easy gradient for the settlers dray and the passengers coach. This does not long suffice for the needs of a growing colony, so the railway must next be formed along the same route; but its engineers are not satisfied with simply clearing and leveling a roadway wide enough for transport; for them, the steep hillsides and the deep ravines must be denuded of their wealth of timber, for fear lest falling branches may impede the passage of the locomotive and the cars.
Thus it happens that in the march of progress the hand of the invader spares not the ancient forest or the fairy glen, but rules through the tangled labyrinth of trunks, vines, shrubs, and creepers, his leveled parallels of glistening rails.
The enchanting fern-glen, whose cool and verdant solitude is so lavishly adorned with its thousand varieties of rare and delicate beauty, softly carpeted with tiny mosses, and overarched by the feathery plumes of towering tree-ferns, has always been the favorite haunt of the tourist photographer, but it is being ruthlessly invaded by the industrious settler and by his stock who roam along this cool retreat, browsing on the young shoots and tender plants.
It may perhaps seem Utopian to expect the average bushman to be possessed of any keen aesthetic sense, yet they often despoil, by sheer thoughtlessness, some of the fairest gardens in the world.
An artist who was trying to make some Photograms of one of the most charming dells in this beautiful world, and who was arranging his composition so as to catch a glimpse through the feathery fronds of a glistening cascade, was thus accosted by the proprietor of the domain: "Oh, you want to get a photo of the waterfall, do you? What a pity them ferns are in the way; come up again in about a month's time and I will have 'em all cleared out so that you can get a clear view". Needless to say, such a remonstrance followed that the settler promised never to cut down another tree-fern as long as he lived.
But the ordinary settler remorselessly sacrifices majestic fern-trees, hoary with a vast antiquity, that the toughened stems may be used for a chimney or for paving a footway.
The manifest duty of every New Zealand photographer is therefore to secure as many pictures as possible of the passing glories of its unique beauty. Thus engaged they cannot be expected to produce any of these mystic Photograms which appeal so vividly to the artistic imagination in the pages of such a splendid record of progress as Photograms of 1900.
"THE POHUTUKAWA"
Josiah Martin
Auckland, New Zealand
PHOTOGRAMS 1900
1904 PHOTOGRAMS
"GOSSIP"
T. Leedham
Auckland, New Zealand
PHOTOGRAMS 1904
1919 PHOTOGRAMS
"THE SPIRIT OF THE DUNES"
A.M. MACDONALD
New Zealand
PHOTOGRAMS 1919
1920 PHOTOGRAMS
"ON THE DUNES"
GEORGE CHANCE
New Zealand
PHOTOGRAMS 1920
"AN OLD WATER WHEEL"
GERALD E. JONES
Auckland, New Zealand
PHOTOGRAMS 1920
1921 PHOTOGRAMS
PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY IN NEW ZEALAND
By THE REV. H.O. FENTON (Dunedin)
New Zealand is a young Dominion, and therefore it is not surprising that Art, in all its forms, is still quite in its infancy. A great number of people are trying, and trying very hard, to express themselves in painting and in music. But in most cases there is yet a long way to be traveled before real success is achieved. This is especially true of photography, which is laboring under a disadvantage not so much shared by other arts. For while there are a certain number of good paintings in the Dominion, and occasional visits are paid by musicians of worldwide reputation, photographers have had no standard by which to compare their own work. So the opportunity of seeing some of the world's best prints that is being offered by the circulation of one of the "Photograms of the Year" collections of original prints throughout New Zealand will be hailed with delight, and will have an untold educative value.
In New Zealand the light is fairly hard, and soft, misty effects are rare. There is scarcely any architecture that can be used pictorially. On the other hand the native bush has a charm all its own, and differs in toto from the Australian blue gum. The New Zealander is too apt to try to copy English landscape, and fails to realize that he has a wealth of indigenous material all round him. The bush, the lakes, the lovely bays and inlets, the life of the station and the run, all obtainable in a blaze of sunshine, should furnish him with any quantity of original subjects. The humble, but useful, sheep might be made more use of pictorially: and how few pictures have been made of the Maori in anything but the most ordinary and conventional stagings. Surely something can be made out of the native in his pah as pictorial as the Italian peasant in his village.
There are eight photographic societies in New Zealand. Some of these are doing excellent work in training beginners. It is in technique, and especially in exposure, that there is room for improvement.
A couple of years ago the Dunedin Photographic Society inaugurated the idea of an annual inter-club competition, each club sending in twelve prints. These are exhibited in the towns in which each competing club is situated. The friendly rivalry has had a most stimulating effect. There have now been three inter-club competitions. Dunedin won the first two, Southland won the third, with Wellington second. Most of the clubs hold annual exhibitions. The great difficulty is to obtain adequate judging. This is particularly the case in Wellington.
The vast enthusiasm of a rapidly increasing number of photographers should ensure that in course of time New Zealand will make a name for herself in the photographic world.
"THE SENTINEL"
W.J. FERGUSON
New Zealand
PHOTOGRAMS 1920
30th JUNE 1923
Page 2 - WAIKATO TIMES, VOLUME 97, ISSUE 15278
PHOTOGRAPHY IN NEW ZEALAND
In "Photograms of the Year", the annual review for 1923 of the world's pictorial photographic work, the following article headed "Photography in New Zealand" appears:
The outstanding event in photographic circles has been the circulation throughout the Dominion of the originals of "Photograms" for 1918. Photographers in New Zealand owe an immense debt of gratitude to Mr F.J. Mortimer for sending these prints across the seas, and to the Dunedin Photographic Society, with whom the idea originated. Hitherto (with the exception of reproductions in various journals) workers have had no standard by which to judge their own efforts. They were content with quite second-rate results, and had no idea what modern photography was capable of. The Photogram pictures, exhibited from one end of New Zealand to the other, have given a great uplift to photography at large, and have been of untold value in raising the general standard of pictorial work. Next to this in usefulness has been the annual inter-club competition, which attracted entries from eight clubs. The Southland Technical College, Invercargill, secured first place, gaining 85 per cent of the possible marks. Wellington (83 per cent) and Auckland (78 per cent) were not far behind. The other clubs were placed in the following order: Hamilton, Timaru, Dunedin, Christchurch. Whangarei was not marked. These competitions are a great incentive to better pictorial work.
It is evident that quite a number of people in the Dominion own cameras. But it is to be feared that relatively only a few do their own developing and printing. This is regrettable. The various clubs are doing excellent work in giving instruction to beginners, as well as providing for the more advanced workers.
A new club is being formed in Napier and owes its beginning to the Photogram pictures. Whangarei has formed a society, and is to be commended on sending an entry to the inter-club competition. At present it is only in its infancy, but no doubt it will follow in the steps of Hamilton, which only a year or two ago was just emerging from its cradle, and has gone ahead by leaps and bounds. In addition to other clubs, Auckland possesses a very live Stereoscopic Society affiliated to the English and American societies. Wellington has several photographers who have the root of the matter in them. The Christchurch Club seems admirably organized, and Timaru is forging steadily ahead. The Dunedin Society is in some ways the most progressive in the Dominion. It is instituting the first inter-colonial exhibition to be held in New Zealand. It was too late to invite entries from South Africa and Canada, but this will be done next year. A large number of pictures is expected from Australia. Invercargill continues the home of pictorial work, and secures a large proportion of the awards made in England for colonial pictures.
The outlook for photography in New Zealand is most hopeful.