item details
NameMrs John Addison (WAAF)
ProductionSpencer Digby Studios; photography studio; 21 February 1944; Wellington
Classificationgelatin silver negatives, black-and-white negatives
Materialssilver, photographic gelatin, black-and-white film, cut film
Materials Summaryblack and white negative
DimensionsSupport: 120mm (height), 160mm (length)
Registration NumberB.057959
Credit lineSpencer Digby / Ronald D Woolf Collection. Gift of Ronald Woolf, 1975
Overview
Wartime was a busy time for portrait studios. Service personnel lined up to have photographs taken for those they would leave behind when they went overseas. Demand for photographs of loved ones to carry with them would equally have stimulated business. Military personnel who did not serve overseas, like this woman in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, may have simply wished to picture themselves in their new, uniformed role.
This studio offered a money-saving opportunity of two poses on the same negative. Most people, perhaps at the photographer’s suggestion, adopted a one-serious, one-smiling pose. Others chose a left and right profile.
- From New Zealand Photography Collected by Athol McCredie, Te Papa Press, 2015.