Lens on lost beauty

The White Terrace at Lake Rotomahana. Picture / George D. Valentine, courtesy Auckland Museum

At long last, it's Valentine's day. More than a century after he died, gentleman photographer George D. Valentine's work features in an exhibition.

Though he is recognised as one of New Zealand's greatest 19th-century photographers, his work has mostly languished in museum archives and private collections.

But when photographer and art historian Ken Hall saw an album of Valentine's pictures, the Scottish-born snapper was destined to find a wider audience.

Hall became obsessed with Valentine's work, and the result is a book and a touring exhibition of photographs.

The exhibition at the Auckland Museum runs from June 9 to August 27, coinciding with the 120th anniversary of the event which most shaped Valentine as a photographer - the June 10, 1886, eruption of Mt Tarawera.

Not long after his arrival in New Zealand with his family, Valentine visited Rotomahana in the Rotorua region, and captured what is described as an unparalleled series of images of the Pink and White Terraces.

A year later, the terraces were destroyed and buried by the eruption which claimed more than 100 lives.

"Valentine returned to an almost unrecognisable landscape, and in his remaining few years sought out extraordinary landscapes to match his interests and talents," says Hall.

"While the subject matter of Valentine's photographs holds obvious fascination, the artistic quality of this work is exceptionally strong. There are many images here that will remain with the viewer."

Valentine, racked by a tubercular cough, died in 1890, aged just 37.