Articles
Life in the 20th century
Exploration of everyday life in New Zealand from 1900 to the mid-1980s
- Page 1 - Living in the 20th CenturyExploration of everyday life in New Zealand from 1900 to the
Links - documents and photographs
Waiuta
Today Waiuta is a West Coast ghost town. But from 1906 to 1951 it was the company town for the South Island's largest gold mine and home to 600 people. The superb photographs of Czech immigrant Joseph Divis provide a fascinating glimpse of Waiuta in its heyday.
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Page 2 – The Blackwater mine
A small prospecting group discovered a gold-bearing quartz reef in the upper reaches of Blackwater Creek, a tributary of the Grey River, on 9 November 1905.
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Page 3 – The town of Waiuta
As more houses were built, Waiuta started to look less like a mining camp. It always had the appearance, though, of a frontier town dominated by wood and corrugated iron.
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Page 4 – From boom to bust
The outbreak of the Second World War led to a gradual decline in the number of miners.
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Page 5 – Joseph Divis, Waiuta's photographer
Biography of Waiuta photographer Joseph Divis
History of New Zealand photography
The history of photography in New Zealand dates from the 1840s. Today it’s hard to imagine life without photographic images. Their ubiquity extends from the newspaper to the art gallery, from the billboard to the family album, from product packaging to the internet.
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Page 2 – Photography timeline
A timeline of New Zealand photography from the 1840s to the present day
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Page 3 – A history of NZ photography in 20 photographs
A history of New Zealand photography told through a selection of images
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Page 4 – Further information
Recommended links and books relating to New Zealand photography
Parliament's culture and traditions
Explore Parliament's rich history and its colourful culture and traditions.
- Page 3 - Parliament in postcardsPainters and photographers loved to capture the beauty of Parliament's buildings in postcards, and New Zealanders and visitors sent these to friends and family in new Zealand and
Korean War
New Zealand was involved militarily in Korea from 1950 to 1957, first as part of the United Nations 'police action' to repel North Korea's invasion of its southern neighbour, and then in a garrison role after the armistice in July 1953.
- Page 9 - The Bob Jagger photographsCollection of previously unpublished images of the Korean War by Kiwi Gunner Bob
Biographies
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Burt, Gordon Onslow Hilbury
Gordon Burt was an enterprising and inventive commercial photographer, whose craftsmanship in the studio was without equal.
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Crombie, John Nicol
The lure of gold brought thousands of men to the Antipodes in the 1800s, including Glasgow-born photographer John Crombie.
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Pulman, Elizabeth
Elizabeth Pulman was quite possibly New Zealand’s first female professional photographer.
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Kent, Thelma Rene
A prize-winner from the moment she picked up a camera, Thelma Kent avidly photographed the New Zealand landscape, offering an independent and distinctive view.
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Digby, Spencer Harry Gilbee
Spencer Digby had an ability to subtly finesse his portraits and gave tremendous prestige to the art of portraiture in Wellington, most notably with his enduring image of Michael Joseph Savage.
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Hofmann, Frank Simon
Frank Hofmann was an influential photographer, both commercially and artistically, introducing interwar European modernist ideas and practices into New Zealand.
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Pascoe, John Dobrée
John Pascoe was an avid mountaineer and writer. Though he helped pioneer documentary photography in New Zealand, he has been described as our greatest unrecognised 20th century photographer.
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White, Leo Lemuel
For much of his life Leo White successfully combined two of his passions, aviation and photography, starting Whites Aviation and finding his photographs decorating hundreds of New Zealand homes.
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Main image: WS 686 locomotive at Petone workshops
WS 686 (later WAB 686) locomotive built at Addington workshops in 1917