Couple

This extract originally appeared in New Zealand Photography Collected: 175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2025) on page 27.

These cartes-de-visite [O.034215, O.043318, O.004992] were all made early in the development of the form. The voluminous crinoline dresses, supported by an underlying structure of steel or cane hoops, which two of the women wear, date these images to the 1860s. The plain back-grounds of the top two also suggest an early date; though, in the case of the seated elderly man, this may simply mean that his photograph was taken in a low-budget studio —despite the top hat and cane, his pose does not have the studied air of a gentleman patronising a prestigious establishment. The unsophisticated setting of the image below left where the man is squeezed in by an awkwardly placed writing desk, points to an early, or low-rent, operation too. The date range here is from the known period in which photographers JC Burne & Son were at the address stamped on the back of the mount.