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Nosferatwho?

Behind the scenes

31 October 2012. Posted by David Simpson

For me, the best bits in vintage photographs are often the bits the photographer didn't really mean to capture.

The long exposures and bulky apperatus required by early photographic techniques meant that the candid shot was unlikely. People generally knew you were there, and they were paying attention. So you have the slightly disquieting sensation that everyone in the the street is staring at you.

Robert Percy Moore Business centre, Lyttelton N.Z., 5.5.'23 1923. Silver gelatin photographic print (contact print from the Cirkut camera negative). National Library of New Zealand, Alexander Turnbull Library Pan-1734-F

Robert Percy Moore Business centre, Lyttelton N.Z., 5.5.'23 (detail) 1923. Silver gelatin photographic print (contact print from the Cirkut camera negative). National Library of New Zealand, Alexander Turnbull Library Pan-1734-F

Daniel Louis Mundy [Corner of Hereford Street and Oxford Terrace, Christchurch, looking north, 22 April 1869] 1869. Albumen photograph. Barry Hancox Collection

Daniel Louis Mundy [Corner of Hereford Street and Oxford Terrace, Christchurch, looking north, 22 April 1869] (detail) 1869. Albumen photograph. Barry Hancox Collection

And then there are the people along for the ride - in A.C. Barker's case often his kids. Here you can see two amongst the flax by the riverbank.

Dr Alfred Charles Barker Christchurch Government Buildings 5.45 a.m. Dec 16 1858 1858. Albumen photograph. Barry Hancox Collection

Dr Alfred Charles Barker Christchurch Government Buildings 5.45 a.m. Dec 16 1858 (detail) 1858. Albumen photograph. Barry Hancox Collection

Those long exposures make representing people in movement tricky. But as most people are standing watching you anyway that wasn't too much of an insurmountable problem. Here my guess is that D.M. Mundy asked the fellow with the beard to stand still as if in mid stride - his frozen movement seems weirdly clunky.

Daniel Louis Mundy Provincial Council Chamber 1865. Albumen photograph. Barry Hancox Collection

Daniel Louis Mundy Provincial Council Chamber (detail) 1865. Albumen photograph. Barry Hancox Collection

But above all, these photographs can render perfectly normal people rather creepy. I know it's hardly breaking new ground as an observation, but... maybe it's all the beards. (And I say this as a committed beardy myself.)

The cab driver to the left of this Burton Brothers shot is almost definitely a serial killer...

Burton Brothers [Cathedral Square, Christchurch] c.1886. Photograph from silver gelatin dry plate negative. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa C.011561

Burton Brothers [Cathedral Square, Christchurch] (detail) c.1886. Photograph from silver gelatin dry plate negative. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa C.011561

The photos in Reconstruction kept me amused for ages, but the grand prize for sinister goes to a work that featured in our slightly ill-starred Van der Velden: Otira publication.

Photographer unknown The new hotel at Otira Gorge c.1890 Photograph. E.M. Lovell-Smith collection, Canterbury Museum 19XX.2.4789

Photographer unknown The new hotel at Otira Gorge (detail) c.1890 Photograph. E.M. Lovell-Smith collection, Canterbury Museum 19XX.2.4789

Pure evil.

B.

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