Lens on our houses

Outside Tylee Cottage are Denis McGowan and Maartje Morton with John Smart taking photo. Photo / Paul Brooks

Photographing houses may not sound that enthralling to some, but this collaborative initiative by Whanganui Camera Club and Whanganui Regional Heritage Trust is an exciting project. Its objective is to photograph and record a cross-section of Whanganui's domestic dwelling architectural styles from the 19th century to today, calling it Domestic Houses Architectural Record 2022.

It was John Smart's idea: he is president of Whanganui Camera Club.
"From the point of view of the Camera Club, we have a set of skills and equipment, and we love taking photos, so we have the ability to record things and the world as it is. I had seen this as a public service project. It would be good for us to apply our skills, get alongside these guys [ Whanganui Regional Heritage Trust] who know a lot more about houses and architecture and are able to describe the range of housing in Whanganui, which is unique.
"We could provide a pictorial record of Whanganui houses as they are in 2022." John says such a record would prove valuable now and 100 years hence. He says while a lot of the record will include heritage houses, many of today's modern homes will become heritage houses, should they survive into the future.
"It's trying to grab a snapshot that will become a living memory," says John. "Heritage Trust not only helps us with understanding the architecture, but also, through the Alexander Library, are going to archive the product — prints and digital archives. Through working with the Heritage Trust we get that longevity."

There has been a suggestion that there could be a book in this.
"We've talked about that in our group," says Denis McGowan, trustee of the Whanganui Regional Heritage Trust, "And we may, in fact, get to that point, although that's not the prime exercise right now." He says their objective is to support the project because the Camera Club has skills they can use.
The Trust and the Camera Club have formed a combined working group for this project, with three representatives from each. From the Heritage Trust are Bruce Dickson, Nick Wotton and Denis McGowan; and from the Camera Club Beverley Sinclair, Maartje Morton and John Smart.

"I view this through a number of lenses," says John. "One is the changing architectural styles ... they mirror, quite reasonable, the decades in which they were built.
"The other way you can look at it in Whanganui is what happened suburb by suburb." Suburbs developed at different rates in different times, so there will be a suburb view. John says the other element is making sure they capture the big, imposing homes and also the two-bedroom cottages.

"We're interested in conservation and protection," says Denis. "We're interested in education and advocacy; but the point about this project is it allows us to put the various heritage eras into a continuum, so it will be mixed with other stuff we're not particularly worried about, but it's still important as a record." He says it will show the mix of social effects and post-war austerity on building styles and construction techniques.
"These guys [the Camera Club] will come across that when they're looking for a particular era. It's still part of that continuum."
Denis has looked at other towns as a comparison and believes Whanganui has the best collection of homes that display styles right across all eras of New Zealand's architecture, grand or mundane.
"We've got a bit of everything here," he says.

John says one of their resources for this project was the District Council Heritage Inventory, and he's hoping they will come up with a lot more places the council might like to add to that list.
There are criteria that get a house on the Camera Club list and photographed for the record, says John.
"First is photogenicity — can we take the photo? Are there trees in the way etc? Is it presenting well to the road? Is it representative of its era?"
Maartje Morton says they are not looking to photograph run-down places that present badly. "We want to be respectful of them."

During Heritage Month there will be an exhibition of the photographs.
"[The project] is great from our point of view," says Denis, "We get a tremendous amount of information which we haven't had in the past. We've had some of it in terms of the best quality houses ... but we don't get them in the complete context."
John says Whanganui has a large number of 1900s villas and 1920s bungalows. "I've got more examples out of the 1920s than any other decade. I don't know whether that's because there were more houses built in the 1920s, or they're just more attractive and you're drawn to them."
Denis says there was a 1920s housing boom and those homes lend themselves to redevelopment. They were the last to use all native timber.
"They are good, solid houses."

John has a long list of houses they would like to photograph, so if a man or woman with a camera turns up on your doorstep, asking permission to photograph your house, perhaps from inside your boundary, it's all for posterity and the enlightenment of future generations.
If you think your house should be included, email John at president@whanganuicameraclub.org.nz
Selected houses have had a flyer delivered to their letterbox so they will know what's going on when a photographer turns up.