Vintage Photography Archive. New Zealand-1950-60s.

[Rab]

Back in 2010 my friend Rachel was tired of lugging around boxes of slides she found in a Dunedin recycling centre. Ode to joy..i thought they were so good i scanned as many as i could before the damn machine died. The man behind them was a Mr Drumm who was a taxi driver from Invercargill..he had used a quality camera..perhaps a Leica or a Rolleiflex with a 35mm attachment. I found it really sad that the family just disposed of such an extraordinary personal record of NZ social history. Ill do them in sets of three or sequence just in case u want to comment.

Military parade. Invercargill circa 1958

 

[Rab]

[Rab]

Invercargill bicycle race. circa. 1958

[Rab]

A lot of the images are holiday snaps...his first car was a Hillman Minx and then the second was a Holden EH or HR:

1. Auckland harbour bridge and his Mrs. Last image round the wrong way sorry?!

 

[Rab]

Ill drop in the occasional personal non car-plane shots just cos i think their so funny...shotgun wedding and bridesmaid.

[Rab]

South to North island holiday.Middle shot is the Hillman Minx being lowered onto the ferry going to Wellington. No ramps in those days.

[Wack]

Keep them coming , I love old pictures , at the moment I've got 3000 + I bought from a house clearance , loaded family , holidays abroad from the early 50s to the 80s , I haven't had a chance to go through them yet though

[Rab]

Mr Drumm had an eye for modernist architecture of which NZ is now a fantastic visual archive of.

[Rab]

His Hillman on the interislander ferry hoist. The Guvner Generals Roller and some tourists.Its impossible for me to put these all in yearly order..so it bounces btwn the decades.

[Rab]

Classic bike show circa 1958 and the Meremere coal fired power station outside Auckland..newly built..rumour has it they built it the wrong way round!..so the back faced onto the main road instead u seeing its front glass facade...its now been mostly demolished and is now a drag racing-drifting track.

[Rab]

A church car park..a plane and the newly built Ellerslie Racecourse horses for courses..not sure but i think!

[Rab]

Fertisiler phosphate factory when is on the link road between Hastings and Napier in the Hawkes bay. Its still there.

[Rab]

Picton to Wellington ferry...actually..the return ticket on that!

[Rab]

Winifred Atwell..the world famous honky tonk piano player. She emigrated to Australia and saw out her career touring there and New Zealand. I simply love this..cos funnily enough Ive got a 10 inch vinyl of hers in NZ.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winifred_Atwell

[Rab]

Family snaps.Im proud to be a Grandpa..look at the camera self timer and joys of the concrete patio.

[Rab]

Planes..he really liked planes..and gliders.

[Rab]

Double exposure..good exposure and crap exposure but awesome curtains.

[Rab]

Glen Orchy which is the end of Lake Wakatipu nr Queenstown. Ive been there ..its great..and some of the chod lying about was mindblowing. Oh..and hes finally bought that Holden Taxi.

[somewhatfoolish]

29 minutes ago, Rab said:

A lot of the images are holiday snaps...his first car was a Hillman Minx and then the second was a Holden EH or HR:

1. Auckland harbour bridge and his Mrs.

 

 

These are flipped, the letters are sdrawkcab and the bridge is going the RONG way. The bridge pic is I think taken from the top of St Marys Rd looking north.

[Rab]

2 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

These are flipped, the letters are sdrawkcab and the bridge is going the RONG way. The bridge pic is I think taken from the top of St Marys Rd looking north.

Adds to the fun..i seriously cant be timelessly consumed putting them all through GIMP-Photoshop.Its exhausting.

[Rab]

He seriously loved that Holden.

[Rab]

He also liked Graders..and that Holden..and I think his wife as well.But somehow im not sure whether he used his wife merely as a front drop for cars and planes.

[Rab]

Happy Holden Holidaying!

[Rab]

The Holden at a house..at the racetrack and a street scene of New Plymouth.

[Rab]

The Japanese Lady Mountaineering Team -Aoraki / Mount Cook ( 3,724 metres) and their 1958 Toyopet. These are gold!

 

 

[somewhatfoolish]

[Rab]

1 minute ago, somewhatfoolish said:

haha..yep..considering i was just criss crossing it constantly..thanks for that.

[somewhatfoolish]

Don't mind me, I'm just mithering; great photos and as you said social history which is in great danger of being binned.

[Rab]

Invercargill Annual Street Parade...water safety tidal wave..brass monkeys in uniform and some clowns driving a tractor with some tigers.

[Rab]

Why go all the way to the Antarctic when u can simulate it on the back of a truck...not sure whats going on with the twin set and pearls...and some ladies modelling a giant toilet roll and somebody gone overboard on the Chrysanthemums decorating the truck.I imagine they wilted pretty fast.