Geoff Perry (1900-52) worked as a commercial photographer in Wellington from the 1930s until he moved to Levin in the early 1950s. His principal form of income came from portrait sittings which issued from his Brandon Street studio. What makes Perry's work distinct from his competitors' is his innovative use of emblems or motifs which were projected onto his studio wall behind the subject. These helped to create a mood which reflected the individual's professional interests.
Photographers and their Prints
From the Collection of the NZCP
Geoff Perry (1900-52) worked as a commercial photographer in Wellington from the 1930s until he moved to Levin in the early 1950s. His principal form of income came from portrait sittings which issued from his Brandon Street studio. What makes Perry's work distinct from his competitors' is his innovative use of emblems or motifs which were projected onto his studio wall behind the subject. These helped to create a mood which reflected the individual's professional interests.
Photograph above right: Howard Wadman, Writer, c1940
The results of these creative sessions seem to have involved his 35mm camera which produced a sequence of shots which allowed him to select one for enlargement, retouching and copying. Up until 1940 most professional photographers relied heavily on larger format cameras to carry the burden of the portrait trade, with anything up to 10x8 inch plate camera employed. In the old days there was every reason for this, because they gave the retoucher scope to enhance the features of the sitter. No doubt inspired by the hew technology, which 35mm camera work ushered in, and a tendency in the 1940s for customers to favour a warts and all depiction, Perry used his 'miniature camera', as they were known at the time, to obtain informal but more realistic studies. Selecting one from the sequence he would make a print from which an internegative could be made.
|
|
|
Roland Hipkins, Artist, c1946
|
We have several examples of this technique in his archive, which was presented to the Centre by his son Hugh Perry of Christchurch. One in this manner is a study of the Wellington artist Roland Hipkins. Here Perry has projected part of a Hipkins painting onto his studio wall as a backdrop. (illustrated)
In another session he had the artist Russell Clark dramatically posed with shapes suggestive of studio lights and tubes of paint (l.right), while writer, broadcaster and actor Howard Wadman was surrounded with a microphone, typewriter and a leather-bound volume (top right).
From information supplied by his son Hugh, we suspect he used a Contax camera with film supplied by the Americans who were based in Wellington during the war. Hugh also tells us his father perfected a developer which gave him tremendous results in comparison to standard chemicals current at the time.
 |
|
Russell Clark, Artist, c1940
|
© Copyright by Bill Main
©1999 New Zealand Centre for Photography, Wellington, New Zealand