Whanganui Camera Club tackles ambitious project in 2025

Whanganui Camera Club president John Smart and Whanganui Regional Museum director Bronwyn Labrum look at a heritage photo of Whanganui from the Tesla Studio collection at the museum. Photo / Claire Smart

The Whanganui Camera Club is embarking on a year-long project to capture daily life in the city.

The project will begin with the New Year and take place throughout 2025.

The club aimed to have photographers capturing moments “that are recognisably Whanganui” and cover a wide cross-section of activities and environments, president John Smart said.

“We expect club members will be out and about virtually every day during 2025, photographing the people, activities and places that make Whanganui such a vibrant and special place to live.”

The project, Snapshots of Whanganui 2025, would focus on candid, rather than posed, images, aiming to capture the personality of the people and the city.

Although the photographers would primarily focus on public spaces, they also wanted to show Whanganui people at work and play.

The club hoped companies, sports clubs and service organisations would allow the photographers access to gain insight and photograph opportunities for the project, Smart said.

In 2026, after completion of the project, the images will be curated and displayed at the Whanganui Regional Museum.

Museum director Bronwyn Labrum noted the success of similar exhibitions of images by Whanganui photographer William James Harding and West Coast miner Joseph Divis.

The William James Harding collection was placed on the Unesco Memory of the World register in October for its images of settler life in photographs taken from the 1850s to 1880s.

“These images showed how vital it is to have someone recording daily life as it actually happens, capturing those moments for posterity that can never be recreated,” Labrum said.

“With this project, people 100 years (and more) in the future will be able to look back and see how we, their forebears, lived our lives.”

Snapshots of Whanganui 2025 will be the third “public service project” carried out by the Whanganui Camera Club, following the Domestic Heritage project in 2022 and the Churches project in 2024.

More than 30 photographers will participate. They will carry project identification and anyone who is photographed can opt out. Children will not be photographed unless as part of a group or event.

“We really hope the people of Whanganui get behind this project. Let us know if you have an event we should cover or would be willing to provide access to your workplace or organisation,” Smart said.

Anyone with ideas or recommendations can contact Smart at president@whanganuicameraclub.org.nz