After an eight year stint in Kiribati, from 1976 to 1984, Tony and Joan and their two sons Austin and Brett, moved to New Zealand.
While his new life in New Zealand kept him busy, his connection with Kiribati stayed strong and every year or two he would return and focus on various photographic projects.
Part of his passion for Kiribati was that he was aggrieved the island nation was being unfairly targeted in terms of its long-term survival by the influences of western culture and the threat of climate change, when the islands themselves had not contributed to the demise.
In 2008 Tony was awarded the Kiribati Order of Merit (Boutokaan Toronibwain Kiribati) for contributions to the development, reputation and international recognition of the common welfare and traditional life in Kiribati.
Tony was born in Colwyn Bay, north Wales on October 19, 1944. He grew up and was educated in London and Swindon, taught art and pottery in Swindon for two years before spending four years in Uganda also teaching art and pottery; returned to Maesycwmmer, south Wales to complete diploma in art curriculum at Cardiff University before going to Kiribati in the central Pacific where he taught art and photography.
In New Zealand, Tony became Head of Photography at Wellington Polytechnic, which would morph into Massey University.
Not only did he transform the photographic department, but he changed the thinking of how people approached photography, which he called visual communication.
He was admired among fellow professional photographers and was a member of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photographers, from which he received a double honours.
He gained his master's degree in anthropology at Massey University in Palmerston North, which allowed him to teach in theory what he had been practising in the field, which was what he loved best. He established a new School of Visual and Material Culture at the Wellington campus.
Tony had many interests aside from photography, including playing music, sailing, drawing and painting.
He built a studio at the back of the garden of the family's property in Raumati South at end of 2012 and planned to spend his retirement painting, but a year later he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia.
He managed to paint last year while in remission, and had an exhibition in Paraparaumu Library in January this year, called Landscapes of the Wairarapa.
But his condition deteriorated and required him to have a series of blood transfusions to build up his haemoglobin and unfortunately he was admitted to hospital with pneumonia. Despite every attempt to clear it, he passed away in Wellington Hospital on April 2. He was 70 years old.
Tony's son Brett says, "As a photo artist I think his legacy would be that he managed to remind us not to be fooled by our preconceptions and to keep using our imaginations when viewing day to day reality and this in turn creates our memories, rituals, mythology in an evolving and artistic creative way which is the essence of staying human; remarkable that he managed to forward that critique thesis using the most literal of mediums, photography."
Tony, a photographer and visual anthropologist who inspired many people, is survived by Joan, Austin and Brett.
