Woman photographer always on the move

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33068, 8 November 1972, Page 6

Woman photographer always on the move

For the last 13 years Mrs Gladys Goodall, of Christchurch, has been photographing New Zealand scenes — travelling by plane, amphibious aircraft, helicopter, jet boat . . .

She has a contract with Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd, and her work appears on the company’s post-cards, booklets, pictorial diary, desk calendars, and the New Zealand Calendar. In the years she has been producing photographs for the calendar its popularity has increased greatly — the company now claims it is the highest selling New Zealand calendar. Her photographs appeared regularly in photographic spreads in the “Weekly News,” and her work has been published in manymagazines in New Zealand and overseas. Recently she became the first woman in New Zealand to gain the commercial qualifications for the New Zealand Professional Photographers’ Association. She is the second woman to become an associate. It all started when she was very young. The family lived on a farm in the Clutha Valley, and her mother bought them an old, folding Kodak

camera. “We developed our photographs in a tank in the kitchen which we made into a dark room. And we learnt how to develop and print on gaslight paper,” she said yesterday. However, it was not until after her marriage and involvement in mountain climbing that photography again became an interest. A mention to a friend that she intended to buy a camera to record some high-country scenes — at a time when only climbing boots, a pack, and plenty of spirit made such

country accessible — got her introduced into the Christchurch Photographic Society. ‘JUST LISTENED’ "I just listened for a year, and then started taking photographs,” she said. “Right from the start I had them published.” Eventually she began selling enlargements. When the demand for colour prints increased she changed from black and white, and it was at this time that she was offered the Whitcombe and Tombs contract. Since then she has been constantly on the move. In her own words, she travels by anything that goes. Dusky Sound is the only area of New Zealand over which she has not flown, and she expects to do that one day. Distances do not bother her — Mrs Goodall has been known to clock up 7000 miles in seven weeks —- but the weather does. Everything depends on anti-cyclones. “When that sun shines I drop everything and go,” she said. Her wardrobe is almost as big a worry as the weather because she must have clothes for every climate and circumstance. Mrs Goodall attributes her success as a landscape photographer to a knowledge of geology and geography. Through the years she has gone on many field trips, and climbing expeditions. “When you go with knowledgable people you learn all the time,” she said.