Bobbie Barwell
{{Short description|Early New Zealand woman photographer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox person/Wikidata|fetchwikidata=ALL|noicon=y|suppressfields=occupation employer}}
Bobbie Barwell ({{nee|Mildred Annie Hickman}}; 25 August 1895 – 14 August 1985) was a New Zealand photographer. She was the first professional woman photographer in Ashburton, and photographed a number of well-known people, including three New Zealand prime ministers. Barwell's photograph of Lake Pukaki was used as the inspiration for the image on the 1940 New Zealand £5 note.
Early life and education
Mildred Annie Hickman, who preferred to be called Bob or Bobbie, was born on 25 August 1895 in Ashburton.{{Cite journal |last=Campbell |first=Danielle |date=2023 |title=Constructing a Snapshot: The Life and Legacy of Photographer Bobbie Barwell |url=http://phanza.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Danielle-Campbell-Constructing-a-Snapshot.pdf |journal=New Zealand Journal of Public History |volume=9}}[https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/Search New Zealand Births Marriages and Deaths Online]. Certificate number 1985/39024, Mildred Annie Barwell She attended primary school in Ashburton, and may later have attended the Canterbury College School of Art.
Career
Barwell married Thomas Claude Barwell (1867–1950), who was 31 years older than her, in 1925.{{Cite web |last=Campbell |first=Danielle |date=2022-09-09 |title=Bobbie Barwell: Capturing People and Places - Ashburton Museum |url=https://ashburtonmuseum.co.nz/event/bobby-barwell-capturing-people-and-places/ |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=Ashburton Museum |language=en-NZ}} Thomas may also have been a photographer.
It is unclear when Barwell became interested in photography. She worked as a retoucher for Frank Denton in Whanganui, and for Henry Herbert Clifford at Clifford Studios in Christchurch. In 1931 she bought the Vita photographic studio in Ashburton, after the death of owner Charles Arthur Cooper. Barwell operated as Barwell Studios, taking studio portraits, wedding, sports group and school photographs, until 1947 when she sold the business and began working for Charles Tindall, another local photographer. She used a Century Camera with glass plate negatives for her studio work, and a Kodak Autographic roll film camera for outdoors work. Barwell was also known as a landscape photographer, as she was a keen tramper and an inaugural member of Ashburton Tramping Club.
File:'One of the tracks. Peel Forest.' 03.1985.0932 (cropped).tif, c. 1930s. Bobbie Barwell is front and centre wearing a scarf.]]
Famous subjects Barwell photographed included Lady Bledisloe in 1933, Ngaio Marsh, trans-Tasman aviator Charles Kingsford Smith, and prime ministers Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser and Walter Nash. Barwell was employed as an official photographer for the Royal New Zealand Air Force, taking photographs of new pilots and passing out parades at the Ashburton RNZAF station, which operated from 1942 to 1944.{{Cite web |title=Wartime RNZAF Stations |url=https://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/RNZAF%2520Stations%2520South%2520Island.htm |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240724105615/https://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/RNZAF%20Stations%20South%20Island.htm |archive-date=2024-07-24 |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz}}
Barwell was renowned for driving her MGs around Ashburton, owning a TA or TB, and a 1947 green TC which she imported new from England.{{Cite news |last=Egan |first=Bernard |date=20 Feb 2014 |title=Magazines inspire memories |url=https://issuu.com/ashguardian/docs/ag-20feb2014 |access-date=23 Jan 2025 |work=Ashburton Guardian}} When the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Ashburton in 1981 she used the fact that the Duke had previously owned the same model as a way to attract the Duke's attention.
Barwell died aged 87 on 14 August 1985 in Ashburton. Her funeral was held at St Stephen's Anglican Church Chapel. She was predeceased by her husband.{{Cite news |date=15 August 1985 |title=Death |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850815.2.141.2 |work=The Press |pages=37 |via=PapersPast}}
Image of Lake Pukaki
Barwell's 1930s photograph of Lake Pukaki in the Canterbury Region was used as the basis for an etching used on the New Zealand £5 note issued by the Reserve Bank in 1940, apparently without her knowledge or permission.{{Cite news |date=30 Jun 2000 |title=Curator will focus on photographers of colonial times |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/curator-will-focus-on-photographers-of-colonial-times/OX4DR5AFEG2DTZQUGP4E3PHEJQ/ |access-date=23 Jan 2025 |work=The New Zealand Herald}}{{Cite news |last=Lysaght |first=Connor |date=17 March 2020 |title=Proper papers, pretty pictures |work=Ashburton Guardian |pages=15}} Barwell reported that local Member of Parliament Horace Herring had a print of her photograph, and had commented that the government might be interested in using it for promotional purposes.
File:Lake Pukaki 025.tif|Lake Pukaki, 1930s
File:A herd of Merino rams. 03.1984.0822.tif|Flock of merino rams near Lake Heron
File:Shop window of John Orr & Co. 03.1986.0193o.tif|John Orr & Co. shop window, Ashburton, 1930s
File:Mount Harper Ice Rink. 05.2013.1199.jpg|Ice rink near Mount Harper
Legacy
File:Bobbie Barwell’s KODAK No.3 Autographic Camera, exhibition shot (cropped).jpg Model H]]
Barwell was the subject of an exhibition at Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum, Bobbie Barwell: Capturing People and Places, which ran from 28 September to 18 December 2022.{{Cite news |date=4 Nov 2022 |title=Bobbie Barwell- Capturing People and Places |url=https://artbeat.org.nz/bobbie%20barwell-%20capturing%20people%20and%20places |access-date=23 January 2024 |work=ArtBeat}} The museum also holds a number of Barwell's drawings and sketches, and her Kodak Autographic roll film camera.{{Cite web |last=Lysaght |first=Connor |date=2021-08-13 |title=Proper Papers, Pretty Pictures |url=https://ashburtonmuseum.wordpress.com/2021/08/14/proper-papers-pretty-pictures/ |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=Ashburton Museum Blog |language=en}} Although Barwell took some of her glass plate negatives when she sold Barwell Studios in 1947, the ones that remained were destroyed.
Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand holds eight landscape photographs by Barwell Studios.{{Cite web |title=Loading... {{!}} Collections Online - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa |url=https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/72025 |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=collections.tepapa.govt.nz}}
References
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External links
- [https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/72025 Photographs by Barwell Studios] at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand
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Category:New Zealand women photographers