The website NZ History provides a timeline for the development of photography in New Zealand and records Alfred Burton traveling the country making topographical images in 1868. In 1875, Daniel Mundy is noted as perhaps the first New Zealand photographer to concentrate exclusively on the landscape.
In 1876 Wellington photographer James Bragge published 50 of his topographical works in Wellington to Wairarapa and he is reported to have many prominent clients.
Mt Tarawera erupted in 1886, burying the Pink and White Terraces. Many photographers had visited the Terraces before the eruption and a number, including George Valentine and the Burton Brothers, revisited the area to document the destruction.
Thomas Muir and George Moodie, photographers on the staff of Burton Brothers, buy the company from Alfred Burton in 1898 and build on its extensive back catalogue. Renaming the company Muir & Moodie, they dominated the scenic view trade.
The Department of Tourist and Health Resorts was established in 1901, the first government tourist department in the world. It employed Thomas Pringle to produce pictorial images to promote tourism.
The Government Publicity Office was formed in 1923 as a branch of the Department of Internal Affairs, employing one movie cameraman and two still photographers to produce tourist publicity material.
Brian Brake and Maurice Shadbolt published New Zealand: gift of the sea in 1963. The book was a best-seller and set a new benchmark for the photographic representation of this country.
In 1981, Robin Morrison’s The South Island of New Zealand from the road was published. The influence of Morrison’s approach to the photographic representation of New Zealand is apparent in a vast number of pictorial books published since.
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Although conservation is not mentioned in the timeline of photography in New Zealand, the wonder and appreciation of the natural landscapes comes through strongly.
Unfortunately it seems that although the images of the early New Zealand photographers resulted in visitors flocking to locations such as the pink and white terraces, there were concerns at the time about the vandalism of geological features by visitors, defacing them and leaving litter and even conflicts with locals. Those concerns would have prompted conservation but perhaps the tourism dollar was a more powerful driver at the time.
A turning point in conservation and environmentalism came at the end of the 1950s when proposals to raise the level of Lake Manapouri and develop a hydro power scheme were met with cries that the loss of this most beautiful lake would be a national disaster.
New Zealand Geographic published the story 50 years on in 2009.
