Batten family's photos present rare snapshots of 1930s in exhibition

The Three Plunket Babies is one of the photographs from the Batten collection showing at the Lysaght-Watt Gallery.

The Lysaght-Watt Gallery in Hawera will host Voyage into the Heartland - a travelling photographic exhibition.

During the early 1930s, the Batten family set out across the North Island of New Zealand with their camera and a horse called Judy to photograph the central region of the Land of the Long White Cloud.

Their perspective is a particular one, carrying us on a journey into early 20th century life in New Zealand with practical but sensitive objectivity.

While their landscape images have a sense of objectivity and bleak isolation, their portraiture shows an affectionate bond between the photographers and subjects.

This familiarity creates an unburdened, carefree outlook from each sitter they photograph.

These experiences stretched their understanding of the world around them and ultimately had a great effect on the family.

Voyage into the Heartland showcases the Batten Collection, a unique photographic anthology exposing original landscapes of the 1930s unseen before in New Zealand.

These landscape images speak of a time where landscape photography was in its infancy and still forging its own identity.

This collection focuses both on powerful landscapes and intimate portraits achieving a great aesthetic approach to their photography where every image engages us, allowing us to immerse ourselves in their world.

The exhibition opens on February 7 and runs till March 4 at the Lysaght Watt Gallery, 4-6 Union St, Hawera.