Leslie Adkin Farmer Photographer
Leslie Adkin Farmer Photographer
Athol McCredie
a response by Virginia Were for PhotoForum
The arrival of Nancy, 17 December 1916. Nancy and Maud at Woodside. Gelatin glass negative, half plate, B.022666.
“Farmer, photographer, geologist and father” seem like more roles and activities than you could cram into a single life, yet these all describe exactly what Wellington-born Leslie Adkin did. Adkin was born into a well-off, middle class family in Wellington in 1888 and his early interest in photography was fostered by his uncle, the well-known, professional photographer Frank Denton. A selection from Adkin’s extraordinary body of photographs – he produced more than 49 albums in his lifetime – is brought together in this substantial book with a well researched text, providing insight into Adkin’s life and the development of photography in Aotearoa in the early 1900s, by Athol McCredie, Curator of Photography at Te Papa.
Divided into themed sections, the book features Adkin’s photographs of farming activities on his property near Taitoko Levin; portraits of his wife Maud and their children at home and on trips to Ōtaki, Hokio and Waitārere beaches; and significant local events, such as the building of the Mangahao hydro-electric scheme in the early 1920s. At the end of the book are some notable photographs of local tangata whenua, including “Hamaria waka, with Taueki family fishing for eels, Lake Horowhenua, 8 June 1926.”
Adkin was a prolific amateur photographer, using professional quality equipment to photograph everyday moments in his life. His sustained focus on his family over decades allows us to see them change and grow, and his method of stage-directing the participants to create images that look like beautifully lit and composed snapshots makes his images unique. In the photograph “The arrival of Nancy, 17 December 1916” Maud gazes across a rumpled sea of white linen at her newborn who is cosily tucked into the sheets an arm’s length away from her mother in a large bed. Between them is a tray with the remains of a half eaten-meal. A rounded jug on the tray echoes the pale, gleaming surface of the baby’s cheek. It’s a tender portrait of the photographer’s wife and new baby, allowing us an intimate glimpse of family life in a different century. At the time, such informal portraits of birth and motherhood were rare.
There are some memorable photographs of farming life, including “Farm hand Allan, Bert Denton and Gilbert Adkin scraping down Leslie Adkin’s pig, 18 May 1910.” The shaved horizontal body of a dead pig strung from a eucalyptus tree is attended by three men, one of whom appears to be wistfully and almost tenderly holding the pig’s foot. Although Adkin was aware of pictorialism in photography – a popular movement in the early 20th century when photographers strove to make their images appear soft-focussed, allegorical and more closely resembling paintings – Adkin avoided this tendency as this sharply focused tableau showing a rather visceral moment demonstrates. Although many of Adkin’s images have the spontaneity and immediacy of snapshots, he clearly wanted to be taken seriously as a photographer, yet he also had a sense of fun. There are playful portraits of people wearing silly hats, and a mischievous image of a group of women dressed in their best clothes, asleep in the sand dunes and apparently unaware of the photographer. Thanks to Adkin’s almost obsessive desire to document his life and the people he loved, he left behind a rich photographic record of a full and varied life and the social and cultural currents that shaped it.
Virginia Were
Farm hand Allan, Bert Denton and Gilbert Adkin scraping down Leslie Adkin’s pig, 18 May 1910. Bert Denton was Leslie’s uncle and ran his own farm near Cheslyn Rise. Gelatin glass negative, half plate, B.022503.
Hamaria waka, with Taueki family fishing for eels, Lake Horowhenua, 8 June 1926. Gelatin glass negative, half plate, B.021578.
Virginia Were is a lens-based artist, and writer. She graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in 2023 with a DocFA. Her writing appears in many New Zealand literary journals and anthologies. Her work is featured here.
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