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FEATURE BOOK OUR LAND IN COLOUR

A reminder of who we were and where we’ve come from.

Photography of Aotearoa New Zealand from 1860 to 1960 was a world of black and white. Now it can be viewed in colour thanks to the work of Brendan Graham who has painstakingly re-colourised more than 200 stunning images.

Our Land in Colour by Graham and author Jock Phillips celebrates the rich story of Aotearoa and opens a window back in time with remarkable detail.

The images span a period when communities were isolated, made their lives from the land and lived an identity forged by the outdoors – before colour photography became prevalent, before large-scale urbanisation, and before the arrival of television and jet-airliners changed the nation forever.

“It is an interesting coincidence that just as colour photography became widespread in the 1960s and 70s, New Zealand society and values also started to change. So this black-andwhite world is not only a different colour, it also preserves a social fabric that is very different from twenty-first century New Zealand,” observes Phillips.

The book shows how the people adapted to the environment and the way they had to feed, clothe, house and transport themselves across an at times inhospitable land, to how they banded together with a spirit that would become famously Kiwi.

Graham has meticulously painted these images in minute detail – from buildings right down the stripes on a man’s tie.

His journey into colourising began when he discovered a passion for his own family history and simply removing the dust and scratches from a photo was not enough.

He experimented with adding colour digitally and colourising his first photo took countless hours, spanning over a month.

On this project, researching every item in the image to get the closest representation of colour as possible was important to him. Graham’s past experience of photography shooting on Ilford 35mm black and white film has also given him the understanding of tonal quality of light. “Colourising helps to transport us back in time and gives us a sense of what life may have been like in the past. Adding colour gets us one step closer.”

Our Land in Colour by Brendan Graham and Jock Phillips, (HarperCollins NZ) $55.

Right top: Poukawa, Hawke’s Bay Māori and Pākehā children pose before a sack race at Poukawa, south of Hastings in Hawke’s Bay in 1932. Such informal fun has always been part of rural community life in New Zealand, and sometimes became more organised, with local sports days and gymkanas involving running races and horse jumping. Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/2049396G, Henry Whitehead.

Right bottom: Christchurch, circa 1910 A woman holds up three honeycombs covered in bees in Christchurch in the early twentieth century. Bees were probably introduced to New Zealand in 1839 by Mary Bumby, the sister of a Northland missionary. Although there were native bees, introduced species were essential to the success of introduced European plants, by pollinating fruits, vegetables and the white clover planted for pasture. In addition, their honey became greatly valued. By the 1950s, there were 7,000 beekeepers in the country and over 150,000 hives. Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/2163842G, Adam MacLay.