‘lmagers of a new land’

Press, 17 December 1982, Page 16

‘lmagers of a new land’

One of New Zealand's successful pioneer tourist promotions has been given a new life by the Turnbull Library. A set of six reproductions of photographs of the Nelson province in the 1880 s and 1890 s taken by the Tyree brothers has just been released in the Library’s 1982 print series. The Tyree studios took many photographs of Nelson scenery and events during the 1890 s at the behest of Newman and Canning’s Buller coach service. They were used to encourage tourists to take the spectacular but poorly patronised coach service between Christchurch and Picton via the West Coast and Nelson. That the campaign was a success is shown by the subsequent growth of Newman s into one of the country's major transport enterprises. The six scenes were selected from a collection of 1000 glass plate negatives bought by the Turnbull Library in 1948 and reproduced in black and white by the duotone process to give a high quality image. “We are delighted at the quality of the image and the fidelity to the original nega-’

tive,” says the chief librarian of the Turnbull, Mr J. ,E. Traue. “The .original negatives are quite superb. You can see every leaf on the trees, and even the'hairs, in the horses’coats.

“These photographs are an important part of New Zea-; land’s history and recreate so much of the. feeling of the pioneer days. The Library is delighted to be able to make these vivid images of land and society available to the public. ’ “In issuing these reproductions, the Library is also acknowledging the importance of photographing as an art form, and as a profession.” .

The founder of the firm, William Tyree, was from Margate, in Kent, and arrived. in New Zealand in 1871. He worked in Queenstown gnd Skippers before establishing the studio in Nelson in 1878. He was a man of wide interests and a prolific inventor. He held many patents for household gadgets, but acetylene gas was his major concern, and in 1896 he left the studio to establish an engineering firm in Sydney.

His younger brother Frederick, "who joined the firm some time after its inception, was responsible for most of the landscape photographs taken by the firm during the 1880 s. He was of a more ' agricultural bent than his brother; and he left the firm in 1889 to divide his time between his own studio in Takaka and a farm in Collingwood. The reproduction of photographs is a new departure for the Turnbull Library, which until now issued reproductions of original paintings. The new series has the general title of "Imagers of a new land" and it is proposed to issue the work of other important early photographers in the series. “ ’lmagers’ has floored everyone." Mr Traue says. “Our printers couldn’t believe it was a word. It has long been obsolete, but it is in my dictionary. In its sense of an image maker it is the right word to describe our pioneer photographers.” The reproductions are available from the Library at $15.00 the set and $2.50 each. Postage is an extra $3.00.