NZ Visual Diary - entry 363

homage to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce

I am a self-taught photographer, having taken only one art studio class in fine art photography. My self-education includes periods of deep immersion in the history of photography.

Several years ago, my wife bought me a lovely book released by the preeminent arts publishing house Taschen. The book Camera Work - The Complete Photographs of Alfred Stieglitz has been a source of endless inspiration for me. I am enamoured of Stieglitz’s photography and that of his close collaborators Eduard Steichen and Paul Strand.

That said, it all began with the French photographer Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who is credited as having produced the oldest known photograph captured with a camera.

Today’s photograph, taken on Shortland Street near its intersection with O’Connell Street in Auckland’s central city district, is an homage to the look and feel of that memorable and much celebrated Niépce image. It is no accident that I elected to photograph at my Shortland Street location. I have much admired the majestic tree featured in the image. And the building behind it exudes a sensibility of 19th century Parisian architecture.