item details
Gordon H. Burt Ltd.; photography studio
Overview
Photograph of a Bedford truck.
This extract originally appeared in New Zealand Photography Collected: 175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2025).
In Aotearoa, early advertising photography was seldom seen on the printed page. Until around the 1970s, artists’ renditions of products dominated because printing technology did not enable compelling and attractive reproduction of photographs. Product photographs were mostly used in point-of-sale advertising or at trade exhibitions. For these, and for newspapers or magazines, backgrounds were clear-cut away to make the models or products stand out, and the images heavily retouched to make up for the deficiencies of graphic reproduction. Open a newspaper today, and clear-cut shots of toasters, toys and cars continue to dominate. In this medium, lifestyle—whether fashion, travel, or home and garden themed—is less easily conveyed than within the pages of a glossy magazine. Newspaper (and internet) photography is used to simply communicate the basics of where to buy and at what price. Magazines, television and packaging, however, deliver the ‘buy our product, make your life better’ message by associating the items with attractive models and desirable lifestyles.