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Album, James Bragge; James Bragge; 2008.5210.1

Album, James Bragge; James Bragge; 2008.5210.1
FromMuseum of Wellington City & Sea
Name/Title
Album, James Bragge
About this object
An album of photographs of Wellington and Wairarapa taken by photographer James Bragge during 19th Century..
Maker
James Bragge
Maker Role
Photographer
Credit Line
Museum Collection
Object Type
Album
Object number
2008.5210.1

Tags

James Bragge
photo album
photographer
Rimatuka Hills
Wellington to the Wairarapa


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Results from DigitalNZ

Wellington photographer James Bragge took this photograph on one of his trips into the Wairarapa, 1876-1877. The founding settlers of Eketahuna immigrated to New Zealand from Scandinavia to clear the Seventy-Mile Bush, a daunting tract of dense forest, about forty miles wide and seventy miles long. Full title: ''
"Ecatahuna" [Eketahuna], The Forty Mile Bush, NZ, c.1875, James Bragge
OurSpace
In Victorian times, most photographers in this country made their living by taking studio portraits. However, a small number focused, for parts of their career at least, on landscape photography. The Burton Brothers did this; so did James Bragge. Bragge was born in South Shields, Durham, England. As a young man he, like his father, worked as a cabinetmaker. Then, in the early 1860s, he emigrated to South Africa and became a photographer. After a brief stint there, he moved to New Zealand, settled in Wellington, and opened his own photographic studio. It was 1876 when Bragge first hitched a mobile darkroom to a horse, and rode northwards towards the Wairarapa, taking photographs along the way. These show places like Dannevirke, Norsewood and Eketahuna, where huge tracts of land were being cleared, and roads, bridges, and settlements were being built. Bragge's photographs were immediately popular with Wellington audiences, who saw them as representing progress. And today, they're valuable records of the settlement process. Between 1876 and 1878, Bragge made several trips through the Wairarapa, taking about 200 photographs. It's been estimated that he took two or three a day. Given the cumbersome photographic and developing process he had to use, this is a quite respectable figure! The photographic technology of the time also meant Bragge had to carry his darkroom with him. Photographs had to be developed very quickly after being taken – which generally meant on the spot. Some landscape photographers took portable darkroom tents around with them. Others, like Bragge, had a darkroom set up on the back of a horse-drawn cart. Bragge's cart, with his name prominent on the side, became almost a trademark in his photographs. Bragge sold prints of the photographs he took on his journeys. At his studio in Wellington, customers could buy the prints individually, or in an album Wellington to the Wairarapa , containing fifty photographs of their choice. The albums were highly...
Biography of James Bragge
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
This is an exterior view of the Colonial Museum, built in 1865, on Museum Street. Extensions were later added as its staff and exhibits grew. On the street front, with high arched windows, are the museum's offices. To the right is the cottage of the Museum Director, Sir James Hector, where he lived with his family until 1882. The museum's exhibition hall is tucked in between the offices and the cottage. The photographer, James Bragge, took many photographs of Wellington and its environs. Bragge specialised in photographing from the same spot several times over several years, which makes it possible to trace the development of the city. Te Papa has a large selection of Bragge's negatives, as well as his famous and rare album of photographs Wellington to the Wairarapa.
Colonial Museum
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Black leather cover with blind and gold tooling.
Photographs of New Zealand Scenery - Wellington to the Wairarapa
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
New Zealand scenery: Wellington to the Wairarapa
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
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