Looking Back at Early Photography in Aotearoa

[Tronhard]

Right now, we are fortunate enough to have a new exhibition at the local museum on the history of photography in New Zealand throughout the 19th Century.  Being remote, NZ was often a little late to get the latest technology but it was adopted by an amazing array of people up and down the sparsely populated country, across the levels of society, and spanned ethnic groups - so local Māori made an effort to record their own narrative of life in the face of colonialization.
A Different Light - Exhibitions - Auckland War Memorial Museum (aucklandmuseum.com)

I have been to the exhibition several times to enjoy the Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes and other  media on display, and check out the early cameras and the images of those who used them.  There is an accompanying book but also one on the roles of NZ women in photography from 1840-1950, and I was surprised at the significant role that they played.  Large numbers were employed as retouchers of images for portraits in particular, and performing colourization of photographs from the earliest days.   There were also women directly behind the camera, and quite a few who ran their own businesses, as well as talented amateurs.  Between all of these, they captured aspects of a fast-changing society and genre photography that might otherwise have been missed.

It was clearly stated that the epitome of photographic colourization and over-painting was achieved by Japanese artisans, who built on a long tradition of silk screen painting and rice paper wood-block products that were already taking the European Art market by storm - Van Gogh, for example was a keen collector.   These highly-skilled artists could produce highly subtle changes in photographs through delicate use of paints for an exquisite effect.

It was serendipitous then that the following video just came to my attention, and for those interested in art history, it is worthy of viewing:

There is a book: Photography in Japan 1853-1912 by Terry Bennett that I have just ordered.

[Tronhard]

Getting my own Daguerreotype (well facsimile)

One of the features of the installation is an interactive booth, set up in a rough facsimile of a early photographic studio has a background of early Auckland taken as a detail from a work on the occasion of the Departure of Lord Onslow, showing Auckland's Harbour.  Opposite a bench is a tablet that allows one to get a photo taken - the tablet has a voice instruction that tells one about the setup of the period and what to do to get an image, and does a countdown to the actual exposure.  Once the image is shot one can keep or dump it, choose a frame style, and input the email address for the image to be sent overnight.

Photo booth with camera and control screen   The seat and backdrop

I decided to have a go, but was very disappointed in the results – the files were tiny and with very poor resolution.  So, I had the brainwave of going back with my own camera, taking a selfie from the same spot against the background and making my own version of their image.  For that I needed a decent image of a frame typical of a Daguerreotype – of which there were several such mounted images on display.   After quite a bit of manipulation, layering and erasing the existing image to replace it with my own, I now have my own clear image of myself as I would appear around 1840-50 (artistic license required for clothing and the later model camera, but it was the best I could get at short notice).

My photo replaces the original from 1848

This is great as a lot of children are visiting the exhibition, which will tour NZ, and they love doing things, so an exercise such as this is really effective in engaging kids into the history of photography.