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Behind the photo is a monthly feature, which explores the history behind well-known images.
These are some of the earliest surviving photographs of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, and Ōtepoti Dunedin. Land reclaimed from the sea, and buildings upon buildings make it difficult to recognise the cities as we know them now. Shaun Higgins led the curation of Auckland Museum’s A Different Light exhibition, based on the book of the name. Here, he explains what went into capturing and preserving the almost 200-year-old photographs.
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Hartley Webster’s View of Parnell and Mechanics Bay, Auckland circa 1857. Photo / Auckland Museum
The quarter-plate ambrotype this photograph was taken on was a recent arrival to New Zealand in 1857, representing the dawn of new photographic technology. This photo is one of the earliest local outdoor photographs to survive. It’s an early outdoor experimental image taken from the top of Constitution Hill looking towards Mechanics Bay, which has now been completely filled in with housing. The waka on the water would have been carrying produce to to the wharves to sell to Aucklanders, who depended on this trade as one of their major food sources in the 1850s.
A year later in 1858, Hartley Webster made the panorama of images (below) from the same location, this time using negatives and prints. It was created by rotating the camera for each exposure and printing each resulting plate with enough overlap to combine the resulting images. Niccol’s shipyard, at the centre of the ambrotype photo, shows the most visible change, and the hotel at the bottom of Parnell Rise is visible with the wider perspective afforded to a panorama.
What do you know of photographer Hartley Webster’s life?
Hartley Webster was based in Auckland as a photographer, but like many, he tried other trades to make a living. He offered daguerreotype likenesses (a photographic technique that creates a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative) from 1852. He travelled around the province to bring them to the small population. Webster’s landscapes can be seen as an outdoor experiment where he tries new technology and formats from familiar locations such as Constitution Hill.
Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington
George Henry Swan’s Three parts of a nine-part panorama of Wellington’s waterfront. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library Collection
These three Albumen silver prints form the central part of one of the earliest known panoramas of Wellington. The settlement is captured in its early development and the constraints of its geography are clear considering the reclamation efforts and the gouged hill between Lambton Quay and The Terrace.
What do you know of photographer George Henry Swan’s life?
George Henry Swan, perhaps better known for his later political career, operated as a photographer in Wellington before moving to Napier. He advertised his portrait gallery in Lambton Quay from 1857, offering to send portraits home to England free of charge.
Ōtepoti Dunedin
This Albumen silver reprint is of Princes Street, one of the busiest streets in Dunedin.
What do you know of photographer John Tensfeld’s life?
The photograph, attributed to Tensfield, is a reprint of a William Meluish photograph. Meluish’s early images of Otago are well known, sold from his Photographic Gallery in Princes Street along with apparatus and materials. Recording views on regular occasions over time, his photographs show a growing urban environment fuelled by the gold rush that happened at the time.
What type of stores and buildings can be seen in this image of Princes Street?
On the left is a row of businesses named above their entrances, British American Stores, J. Wilkie Taylor & Clothier, Andrew Boyes, and Manufacturers of Aerated Waters, Medical Hall. Hocken curator Anna Petersen discusses early photographer J. S. Wilson, operating out of his brother’s chemist shop in Princes Street. Meluish took over from him in 1860. From 1868, John Tensfield also advertised his location as Princes Street, ‘opposite New Post Office’.
Imagine walking up Princes Street in your Sunday best to go and have your portrait taken amidst the horses and dirt, this would be the same in any centre at the time.
How did you collate all the images?
The exhibition is a collaboration between three institutions: Auckland Museum, Alexander Turnbull Library, and Hocken Collections. These collections together total some 10 million photographs, so together we worked on themes and what we wanted to show from across the three collections.
How are these images being preserved?
The photographs in this exhibition are stored in a range of different climates suiting their needs. Keeping them in stable environments helps preserve them for the future. The exhibition is presented in a dimly light fashion to aid this preservation, it takes a few minutes to adjust ones eyes, at which point you can experience the images.
What do you hope people viewing these images will take away from them?
I hope that people get a sense of the sitting in front of the camera in the 19th century, what it felt like to experience photography when it first started here. Also to understand a bit about the wonder it would have conveyed but also question some its applications, especially in the context of colonisation.
What do you think the photographers would think if they could see how much the places they photographed have grown and changed?
Photographers recorded quite substantial changes to the landscape, especially urban, so they may not find it surprising, I think it is more surprising to us to see what places were. Some of the changes governments called progress, hoping to entice people to come here, are quite the opposite to the present day sense of city limits. We may see the loss of the natural landscape, where they saw a place to put more piers and unload more ships for example. But their record does show us what has been altered. Entire headlands have been filled into bay’s to create more urban land, bringing railway lines and other resources to the urban centres as they expanded.
