Photographers Hart, Campbell and Company: The role of photography in exploration, tourism and national promotion in nineteenth century New Zealand.

Abstract

It has been argued that “the history of New Zealand is unique because the period of pioneer colonization closely coincided with the invention and development of photography”1. However, as the first successfully recorded photograph in the country was not made until the late 1840s, the widespread use of photography came after the initial European settlement and its influence coincided more closely with the development of early tourism and with the exploration and later promotion of the country’s wild and remote places. The photographic partnership of William Hart and Charles Campbell followed the path of the gold miners into the hinterland of the South Island aware of its potential commercial photographic value. Photographers understood the “great public interest in what the colony looked like and in
the potential for features that would command international attention”2. Photography was promoted as presenting the world as it was, free of the interpretation of the artist. By the early 1880s the Hart, Campbell portfolio was extensive and their work featured at exhibitions in London, Sydney and Melbourne. Yet their photographs were criticised for fakery and William Hart’s photograph of Sutherland Falls, ‘the world’s highest waterfall’, promoted a quite inaccurate claim.