Historic photo portraits rescued from demolition

Schmidt's portrait of William James Kneebone, of the 24th Reinforcements. Photo / Supplied

An exhibition at Auckland Central Library from next Wednesday celebrates portrait photographer Herman John Schmidt (1872-1959).

The exhibition, curated by Keith Giles, features 12 enlargements from around 27,000 glass plate negatives rescued from a demolition site at 270 Queen St in 1970, and 15 bromoils, along with business records, letters, ephemera and original photographs.

A datashow projecting several hundred of his portraits will also be on display in the exhibition, which runs until the end of August.

Schmidt Studios, run by Herman and his brother Bernard, was active from 1907-42, while the photos in the show cover 1909-19.

Auckland-born Schmidt was apprenticed at the age of 14 to photographer Charles Hemus, and by 1900 Hemus appointed him manager of what later became the Schmidt Hemus Studios, then the Schmidt Studios.

Schmidt is noted for his portraiture, and the rescued negatives include 4500 portraits of World War I soldiers which were digitised in 2005 as part of the commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.

Giles says many library clients have used the resource to track down images of family members they have never seen before.

See www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/heritageimages/apphoto.htm as part of Auckland City Libraries' Heritage Images On-Line.