Active life in photography

Press, 2 June 1981, Page 21

Active life in photography

Aviation has been a dominating force in the life of Reg Kingsford, but his bread and butter — with a slice or two or cake here and there — has been won from photography. Born in Kent, Mr Kingsford was only six when his father died. When about 15 his mother paid £25 to have him apprenticed to a big photographic studio in Chatham. Here, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, and on Saturday mornings, he worked for 3s 6d a week.

"Everything was done by hand, all the printing was done by daylight, with the girls printing in a place like a glasshouse. After the prints had been gold-toned and fixed, it was my job to stand at a sink and wash the prints, alternately tipping the water out and then refilling the dishes, for 45 minutes,” he says. After describing the eight other steps taken before the prints were ready for sale, Mr Kingsford said that even with all this labour, the price for 12 miniature photographs, was only 5s 6d. The most important man in the studio was the “operator.” He wore tails and took the photographs. After a time, says Mr Kingsford, he graduated to the stage where he was permitted to move the studio

furniture about and later still to place the glass photographic plates in their holders.

When about 18 or 19 (about 1910) much against his mother’s wishes he emigrated to Australia; then, as a result of meeting the former well-known Nelson photographer, Tyree, in Sydney, came to Nelson to take charge of Tyree's studio. The war intervened, and when he returned to Nelson in 1919, he sought his own photogrpahic business. He found this in the Broma Studio which in 1920 he began to run as a professional photographer. The studio then was a few: doors west of the present Broma studio, in Hardy Street, now run by his son, Hugh. He and his wife raised four sons. Peter, the eldest, a flight sergeant in the R.N.Z.A.F„ was killed in the Western Desert in 1942; John, badly injured at Cassino in the Army, survived and is a successful architect; Roger, a twin with Hugh, died from osteomyelitis after an old football injury. Nelson owes a lot to Reg Kingsford. For 20 years he served on the Nelson Har- ‘ bour Board — 10 of them as chairman. He was the initiator of the port reclamation which brought Nelson industrially alive. . <