Camera Club and Heritage Trust complete project

Styles of Whanganui homes more than 100 years apart. View the photographic research at Whanganui Community Arts Centre fro October 9 to 15. Photos / John Smart

The photographs have been taken, the houses have been selected, the audio visual has been made – months of planning and hard work have come to an end.

The result is a collection of photos of Whanganui homes from the 1850s to the present day, with more than 100 prints of local houses being exhibited in the Whanganui Community Arts Centre from October 9 to 15.

The project started during one of the lockdowns when John Smart, president of the Whanganui Camera Club, was inspired to suggest that it would be worthwhile to have a record of Whanganui homes taken at a point in time – 2022 to be exact.

The Whanganui Regional Heritage Trust agreed, as did Creative Communities NZ (Whanganui District), which provided a grant of more than $2800 to assist with the printing of the images chosen for exhibition.

Styles of Whanganui homes more than 100 years apart. View the photographic research at Whanganui Community Arts Centre fro October 9 to 15. Photos / John Smart

The project involved 21 photographers from the Whanganui Camera Club going out and about between April and August of this year to capture as many images as they could of homes dating from 1860 through to contemporary houses built in the last decade.

The houses chosen represent the different architectural styles and periods from colonial cottages to today. The final 100 on display are the more authentic exemplars of their type but are just the tip of the iceberg.

More than 800 houses were photographed and the whole collection will be archived at the Alexander Library for use as an educational and historical resource for future generations.

The collection is on display as part of Whanganui Heritage Month in the back gallery of the Whanganui Community Arts Centre in Taupo Quay from October 9 to 15, along with the Whanganui Camera Club Annual Exhibition of members' work in the front gallery.