The era of hand-painted aerial photography

A new book - Hand-Coloured New Zealand- the photographs of Whites Aviation - looks back at the iconic hand-painted aerial photographs which hung ubiquitously in the living rooms of New Zealand.

Wellington Harbour 1951, 270×355mm Te Papa Tongarewa, O.033072 Negative WA-28361-G

Ohau Road 1953, 560×1010mm Collection of Peter Alsop Negative WA-32638-F

Rangitoto Island from Bastion Pt 1954, 500×750mm Cropped for display Collection of Peter Alsop Negative WA-34549-F

Lake Matheson 1958, 560×1010 Collection of Peter Alsop Negative WA-47611-F *

An autumn scene photographed at One Tree Hill in Auckland (New Zealand Autumn, 1958, 660×500mm (cropped for display). ATL, PAColl-D-1370, Negative WA-46164

Arrowtown 1959, 700×1150mm Cropped for display Collection of Leah Seifert Negative WA-50627

Cape Kidnappers 1965, 380×685mm Collection of Peter Alsop Negative WA-64618-F

Left: Grace Rawson, Lorraine Sutton and Nola Mann work on colouring a large photographic mural for H & J Smith's store in Gore in 1955. ATL, WA-39940 Grace Rawson collection

Lenore Gibson handcolouring a scene of Auckland, ATL, WA-16082, 1948.

The photo was taken in December 1955 showing Lorna (surname unknown), Grace Rawson, Jackie McBride, Lorraine Sutton, Nolene Hellriegel and Nola Mann taking a short break in the colouring studio. The scenes showing are Lake Matheson, Arrowtown Road and Shotover River. ATL, WA-40462-F

One of White's favourite photographs - and, at the time, most famous photographs - was this cloud formation taken in May 1951. ATL, WA-28295-F

Clyde Stewart returned from the war in late 1945 and quickly reacquainted with Leo White in the newly opened head office of Whites Aviation. ATL, WA-00742-G, 1945

George Bourne (left, holding a camera) with the Walsh brothers and one of their early seaplanes. c.1918, Auckland Museum, PH-1976-6-9b

Mr Aviation, Leo White ATL, WA-25130-G.

One of White's obituaries referred to him as 'the happy pilot' ATL, WA-68203b-G, 1930

Clyde Stewart and Leo White ATL, WA-23917-F, 1950

The Whites Aviation showroom in 1963, including the popular rectangular works that were unglazed with the option of a clear spray for some level of protection. ATL, WA-61300-F

A large version of Queenstown hangs in Vudu Cafe in Queenstown, while Replete in Taupo has made an extensive collection of Whites images an inherent part of its café culture image courtesy of Paul Green

Ski Plane, 500×600mm (cropped for display), Collection of Hugh Scofield

A major contemporary outing for Whites Aviation started in December 2014 with the exhibition of Air New Zealand 75 Years: Our nation.

The book’s author, Peter Alsop, told Nine to Noon it not only catalogues hundreds of pictures, but also tells the story behind the photographs, who shot them, and how they were coloured by hand.

Aslop says Whites Aviation was the brainchild of Leo White, born in 1906, who was an incredible industrious and ambitious man who fell in love with both flight and photography.

“He had enormous charm, charisma and integrity … [he had] friends from Prime Ministers through to caretakers. He was one of those lovely gentlemen of the era.

“He cut his teeth as probably New Zealand’s best known press photographer in the day. He was documented as being the mostly highly paid, he had a roving commission, the Herald gave him a new car every year to do what he wanted.”

In 1937 he decided he needed a change and set up a company which was a forerunner to Whites Aviation, but the outbreak of the war put paid to that and White headed off to document the war for the Royal New Zealand Air Force in the Pacific. 

After the war he set up Whites Aviation company with Clyde Stewart, which would take aerial photos and sell them to harbour boards, local councils and businesses.

They would also photographed New Zealand landscapes and, in 1952, they put out the Pictorial Reference of New Zealand – in black and white – which was a publishing sensation, selling 10,000 copies in a year.

Whites employed ‘colouring women’ (actually called ‘colouring girls’ at the time) who hand painted the photographs using a length of grape vine with the tip wrapped in cotton wool dipped into thinned oil paint.

Whites Colouring ran strong right through to the 1970s, with one of the long-running colourist working through 1996.

A collection of about 90,000 negatives from the company, from 1945 to the 1980s, are housed in the Alexander Turnbull library, Aslop says. 

“It is one of the gifts of the photos really is to look back at how New Zealand was, and they documented the development of towns and cities and provinces through time."

“It’s a gift that we are really fortunate to have,” Aslop says.

To help with his next book on New Zealand's hand-coloured photography Peter Alsop is asking photographers, colourists, researchers and collectors to contact him at - palsop@paradise.net.nz