Opportunity knocks for education
Wet plate camera was popular in 1860s
On February 22 HLC/LTTM welcomed students with a po¯whiri at our campus at 102 Liverpool St. Led by our cultural adviser, Raymond Kaiki and staff, this was an opportunity to acknowledge and welcome students to the beginning of a new academic year.
To mark the occasion, we erected a marquee on the grounds and were blessed with a wonderful Horowhenua morning.
I would like to thank our board members, staff and students who joined us in celebrating this occasion.
Although we have now been in our new campus for seven months this is the first cohort to start a new academic year at this site.
We are also delighted to welcome Richard Brown, a health improvement practitioner from Think Hauora.
Richard is based at Liverpool St and can provide, free of charge, same day support for anyone with an issue affecting their health and wellbeing.
The addition of Think Hauora continues the expansion of services available at 102 Liverpool St.
The campus has developed as a community centre for youth and adult learners.
The site now comprises organisations supporting youth health through the Horowhenua Youth Health Service; youth mentoring and social services through Life to the Max; youth and adult wellbeing through Think Hauora, English language support for new Kiwis through English Language Partners; and community and vocational education, driver licencing and employment programmes delivered by HLC.
Our focus remains on providing
high quality, relevant qualifications focused on graduate employment and meeting the vision our board has set or us of “changing lives through education and employment”.
At HLC our principal goal is to provide an opportunity for all members of our communities to improve their lives through sustainable employment. As a community trust we focus on overcoming barriers to education
and employment by offering free transport from Kapiti and around the Horowhenua region, support with food grants and living costs through pastoral care funds and assistance in arranging quotes from Work and Income for work-related clothing.
Due to growth in demand for training in the building and construction and aged care sectors enrolments in these courses have doubled from
2020.
For other programmes we continue enrolment throughout the year: NZ Certificate in Hospitality (Level
By the 1860s it was the most popular type of photograph taken.
With the current photographic exhibition in Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom in Foxton, the local audio-visual museum MAVTech has loaned the Foxton library their model of a wet plate camera.
“Wet plate photography was invented in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer. It was the first photographic process to make a high quality negative and by the 1860s it was the most popular type of photograph taken,” Jacob Brookie from MAVTech said.
Although it wasn’t without its drawbacks: the glass plate needed to be coated with collodion chemicals before taking the photograph. Then it had to be developed before it dried. The entire process needed to be completed in around 15-20 minutes.
Because of the equipment needed most wet plate photographers stayed in their studio. There they had all the backdrops and props their subject needed.
The established photographer even used a retouching desk to adjust the negative for the most flattering effect, rather like today’s Photoshop. However, some adventurous photographers took their cameras outside, and brought a mobile darkroom with them.
If your budget didn’t quite stretch to a wet-plate photograph, you could always buy a tintype.
These cameras took a photograph on iron, though there wasn’t any iron involved.
They lacked the quality of a regular wet plate, but were faster and easier to make.
The resulting photo was durable and could be carried around in a vest pocket, and soldiers often did this in the American Civil War.
Tintypes were replaced by dry plate photography in the 1880s, but survived as a fair-ground novelty well into the 20th century.
MAVTech manager Jim Harper said: “The camera on display here is being restored by the volunteers at MAVTech, and is typical of the wet plate cameras used in the 1860s.
“Our camera does not have any maker’s markings on the body, or on the lens, so sadly there’s no information about who made it.” Harper said.