By Sorrel Hoskin

Soldier boy. Image: Swainson/Woods Collection Puke Ariki and District Libraries. SW1940.0128 id "Bendall, Serviceman"

Polli Marriner looks at the image on her computer screensaver and smiles. "It reminds me of why we are here, what this project is about." The image of a young soldier with his dog pulls at the heart strings - the boy looks far too young to be sent to war, and there is the lingering question - what became of him?

Polli and colleagues Kristy Woodruffe, Paul Brobbel and Cameron Curd form a team of Puke Ariki technicians working toward cleaning, conserving, rehousing and cataloguing more than 100,000 historical new Plymouth photographs and negatives. It's the biggest rehousing project of pictorial history to date in New Zealand.

The 200,000 negative Swainson-Woods collection was relocated from a New Plymouth garden shed by Puke Ariki staff in October 2005. Last year the institution was given $331,499 by the Lottery Grants Board for the first stage of a larger project that will see the entire collection archived and made accessible to the public for the first time.

Joe Swainson - photographer

Back in the middle of last century it would have been difficult to find a New Plymouth home that didn't have a Swainson's Studio photograph hanging proudly on its walls. Joe Swainson set up his studio on Devon Street in 1923. Over the years thousands of families, sports teams, servicemen and wedding parties would make the journey up in the rattley old lift to Joseph (Joe) Swainson's studios on the first floor of the King's Building.
 
In the 1960s, Joe Swainson sold his studio to Bernard Woods, who continued the business until the 1990s.

The combined collection includes glass plate negatives taken by Swainson and black and white and sepia images, through to colour prints from the Woods era. As well as documenting social history it's a great example of the progression of technology in the industry. "That's the wonderful thing about this collection," says Puke Ariki pictorial curator Jennie Morgan. "It's a snapshot of photographic development and processes spanning 70 years."

New Plymouth's Genealogical Society has played a large part in the curation of the collection, arranging the gifting of the negatives to the museum, and helping with the initial clean-up. "We really appreciate their help. It's been fantastic,"says Jennie. The Genealogical Society were instrumental in indexing some of the earlier Swainson collection (from 1923-1939) onto microfiche. This index is available for viewing at the Taranaki Research Centre in Puke Ariki.

Preventing deterioration

The project's aim is to arrest any further deterioration. But conserving the collection is a challenge. Some of the negatives retrieved from the shed were damp. To prevent further deterioration they were snap frozen and will remain in storage until they can be thawed and treated by a trained conservator.

Degradation is inherent to the film medium. Kept in humid conditions cellulose acetate negatives  break down over time and produce acetic acid which slowly destroys the image. Dust and grime cover many of the negatives, and many of the packets have stuck together. The conserving process is time consuming as each negative is cleaned, described and the description loaded onto Puke Ariki's heritage collection catalogue system. Eventually these descriptions will be available online and people will be able to order copies of the photographs. The collection itself will be stored in a controlled atmosphere which is clean and dry. The room is kept at about 5C and 30 per cent humidity to prevent further deterioration. 

A treasure trove

The time consuming process has its rewards. Among the collection are some hidden gems. One of the more exciting things found to date has been a box of printing out papers. These are light-sensitive proof prints that photographers made to give to clients, but they would not remain visible unless kept in the dark. 

One of the thousands of negatives being conserved in the Swainson-Woods collection. Image: Puke Ariki.

"They are very rare," says Jennie.

"Photographers gave them to clients so they could decide if they wanted to order a full print. The idea was that once opened and the photo was exposed to the light it would begin to fade so couldn't be kept permanently."

The glassine packets that hold the negatives are themselves little treasures. The packets often hold information that flesh out the story around the picture. Hand written pencil notes give order and customer details, and, occasionally, notes to the photographer to re-touch areas, or to the hand colourist regarding tones. "We've even come across a note asking the photographer to remove someone's left ear!"

Signs of deterioration are evident on this wedding photo taken in 1940. Swainson/Woods Collection, Puke Ariki and District Libraries. SW1940.0206 id "Buckenham, Wedding"

Other finds include pictures of local dignitaries, and a unique photograph of pioneering Taranaki businessman Newton King's funeral. While these images have stories behind them most of the negatives leave the technicians wondering.

Soldier search

"The whole servicemen thing," says Cameron. "We're not even sure if they came back from service - we'd like to know what happened to them." Joe Swainson offered a free studio sitting to servicemen and women going off to World War II. There are photographs of soldiers that were never ordered from, so family may have no idea the images exist.

"Wouldn't it be great for someone to find an image of their granddad that had never been seen before?"  The servicemen negatives will be some of the first available to the public.

"We know this will be of interest to many people out there so we are working to get those under way as soon as possible," says Jennie.

To help build a picture around the collection, Puke Ariki staff have interviewed several Swainson employees. "They were able to fill us in on a few things, even just knowing the layout of the studio and how things were done on a day-to-day basis helps us flesh out the story behind the collection," says Jennie. "Any information we can add to the collection will be invaluable to researchers in years to come."