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Studio portrait photography in Aotearoa New Zealand

Studio portraits taken in a professional photographer’s studio – often making use of backdrops or props – were for formal, posed portraits, as well as informal, candid photographs of people, and sometimes their pets.

The Digby/Woolf Project is wrapping up…

For almost two years, Te Papa has been digitising the Spencer Digby / Ronald D Woolf collection of photographic negatives. Now that this stage of the project is winding down, here are some statistics and highlights from the current team members.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s most famous photograph?

Photography curator Athol McCredie reflects on a famous photograph discovered in 2020 amongst our huge Spencer Digby / Ronald D. Woolf portrait collection of negatives.

What does a Humanities Technician do?

Selection of inscriptions on job bags. Composite image by Te Papa.

Identifying cellulose nitrate film while cataloging our collections

How do we identify one transparent film support from another more dangerous one? This was a challenge posed to staff working with the Spencer Digby / Ronald D Woolf Collection of photographic negatives. Conservator Photography Caroline Garratt describes the issues they face and the technology that helps them.

Digitising studio photography: The Spencer Digby – Ronald D Woolf Lotteries project is underway

In 2021, Te Papa received a grant from Lotteries NZ towards the digitisation of the Spencer Digby / Ronald D Woolf Collection of around 250,000 photographic negatives shot between the 1930s and 1980s. The project is now well underway. Athol McCredie, Curator Photography and Melissa Irving, Senior Imaging Technician tell us about the project.

Adding cat pictures to the internet is my job

The internet’s primary function as a repository for cat pictures is well established, but what about our pre-digital cat photos? Doesn’t the world deserve to see them as well? Imaging Technician Ish Doney describes the housing of the Digby/Woolf photographs collection and uses the opportunity to share some favourites.

Super cool! How the Digby/Woolf Lotteries project keeps negatives safe

The digitisation of the Spencer Digby / Ronald D Woolf Collection of around 250,000 photographic negatives project is now well underway! Imaging Technician Ashleigh James-McKenna gives us an insight into how the negatives are managed.

Digitising film negatives: Making the negative positive in the The Digby / Woolf imaging process

How does a photo negative get from our storerooms onto Collections Online? Imaging Technician Cat Watters tells us about part of their role in the digitising project team.

Do you know these people? Let us know!

Do you come from Wellington, or have relatives who lived in the Wellington area between the 1930s and 1980s? We’d love your help to identify people in photographs from our Spencer Digby/Ronald D Woolf Collection​​​​​​​.

Spencer Digby Studios

From the mid-1920s up until 1960, anyone who was anybody had their photograph taken at Spencer Digby’s Lambton Quay studio, in Wellington.

Connecting Past and Present

Curator Photography Athol McCredie talks about portrait images of a mother and son and then meeting the son over 80 years later.

Collection acquisitions – cabinet card photographs

Curator Historical Documentary Photography Lissa Mitchell takes a look at a set of cabinet card format studio portraits from the late nineteenth century.

‘Miss H Hedley’ by Spencer Digby Studios

From the mid-1920s up until 1960, anyone who was anybody had their photograph taken at Spencer Digby’s Wellington studio. An example is the picture of Miss Hedley, on the top right.

Playing Sherlock: How a chair unlocked the story behind a portrait of a New Zealand wars soldier

Summer scholar Caitlin Lynch describes how a breakthrough clue, in the form of an ornate chair, led to the intriguing story of the solider’s facial disfiguration and reconstruction in a 19th-century portrait.

Fur for best

For most of the twentieth century, fur-trimmed garments and fur accessories were standard pieces in women's wardrobes, especially when having their photographs taken.

Double photographs: Your other self?

Curator Photography Athol McCredie takes inspiration from a set of photographs in our collection to explore the idea that there may be another version of ourselves out there.

William H. Macey – making a fine art of studio portrait photography

Blenheim photographer William Macey’s cabinet cards elevated the format to an art form, Curator Historical Documentary Photography Lissa Mitchell talks through some examples.

Highly sensitive – 19th August 175 years ago

Curator Historical Documentary Photography Lissa Mitchell discusses the process of daguerreotype photography and one of the earliest known daguerreotypes to have been made in New Zealand.

A little mystery – ‘The Sisters’ and the cabinet card photograph

Lissa Mitchell, Curator Historical Photography uses her detective skills to uncover the full story behind a late-1880s photograph.

Wineera family portrait: A picture tells a thousand words

A picture tells a thousand words. Stories from He iti whetū: Ngāti Toa portraits.

Girls in the museum – 19th century

A selection of carte-de-visite cards of girls photographed in Aotearoa New Zealand during the nineteenth century from Te Papa’s photography collection.

Collection acquisition – ambrotype of a couple in front of a wall

Curator Historical Documentary Photography Lissa Mitchell describes an ambrotype – a type of photographic process – acquired for the Te Papa collection.