Henry Winkelmann

Henry Winkelmann (1860–1931) was a New Zealand photographer. Winkelmann's photographs covered a wide range of topics, but he is best known for his yachting photographs.

Henry Winkelmann
Photograph of Winkelmann in 1896 taken by William Henry Macey
Born	(1860-09-26)26 September 1860 Bradford, England
Died	5 July 1931(1931-07-05) (aged 70) Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation	Photographer

Early years

Henry Winkelmann was born at 8 Melbourne Place, Bradford, Yorkshire, England on 26 September 1860, one of eight children of Peter Winkelmann, a stuff and yarn merchant, and Louise Schüller, German immigrants to the United Kingdom. He grew up at Follingworth House in Gomersal, where his family moved to in 1865. He may have attended school in Doncaster and Neuwied, Germany. A musical child, Winkelmann learnt how to play the piano, organ and the zither.

His older brother, Charles, immigrated to New Zealand in 1875, where he first became a schoolteacher, then a chemist and later a photographer. After Charles had emigrated, Henry took over many family responsibilities. The family moved twice during this period, first to Carlton Hall in Bramley then to Selbourne Grove in Manningham, where Winkelmann's father died in 1877.

In July 1878, Henry left England aboard the Calypso, following his brother to New Zealand, arriving at Port Chalmers in Dunedin in October. His mother, Louise, and five sisters followed him to New Zealand in the mid-1880s.

Jarvis Island

By 1881 after travelling the country, Winkelmann was living in a boarding house in Hobson Street, Auckland. He and fellow boarder Harold Willey Hudson, were hired by businessman Thomas Henderson to claim uninhabited Jarvis Island, a location valued for its guano, attempting to secure the island for a period of at least three months. Leaving on the schooner Sunbeam in June 1881, arriving in August, the pair spent a total of eight months stranded and isolated on the island, during which Winkelmann began sketching as a hobby.

Bank clerk

In 1882 Winkelmann joined the Bank of New Zealand. He worked in branches in New Zealand and Fiji, supplementing his income by teaching the zither and performing in concerts. In 1889 he was transferred to the bank's Sydney branch, returning to Auckland in 1891.

Photography

In April 1892 Winkelmann purchased a Lancaster Instantograph camera and soon recognising its commercial potential began to supplement his earnings as bank clerk with photography. He created a darkroom in his mother's house in Dock Street (now Huia Street), Devonport. He continued to work at the Bank of New Zealand, which by 1896 had relocated him to Blenheim. He remained there until 1897 when after his mother's death he left the bank and returned to Auckland. Back in Auckland he began a customs and indent agency on Queen Street wharf, Auckland working for the steamer SS Kawau. He also sold insurance for the Magdeburg Insurance Company, and acted as a debt collector. All the time he continued to supplement this income with photography. In July 1898 Winkelmann was appointed secretary of the Coastal Steamship Company. He travelled throughout New Zealand, recording sights and scenes through the camera lens. As a result, Winkelmann built up an impressive collection of photographs of many subjects.

In 1899 Winkelmann became a member of the Auckland Yacht Club (later the Royal New Zealand Yacht Club). By 1893 his interests in photography and yachting began converging as he was becoming well known for his yachting images. He would often climb the masts while sailing, to take aerial pictures. To assist him in taking better images he purchased a Thornton-Pickard Ruby No.4 half-plate camera and a half plate enlarging lantern from Ross of London.

His photographs were by this time being published in New Zealand periodicals and overseas publications, most notably the Auckland Weekly News, due to his friendship with Henry, Robert and Charles Horton, who had an interest in the publication.

In 1895 he won the New Zealand Graphic photography competition.

In August 1901 Winkelmann set up a photographic studio at 316 Victoria Arcade, at the corner of Shortland and Queen Streets.

In 1903 he accompanied a New Zealand Parliamentary visit to New Zealand's Pacific islands territories. In 1906 he exhibited at the Christchurch International Exhibition.

He was photographer on the 1908 scientific expedition on the Union Steamship ship Taviuni to view the solar eclipse at Flint Island in 1907-1908. This lead him to also accompanying the 1910 scientific expedition on the Talune to the Cook and Society islands.

In 1908 he won the Auckland Weekly News photography competition. In 1915 he won the grand prix award at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

Decline

In late 1913 Winkelmann purchased a farm at Kaukapakapa and he spent much of World War I there, a period that saw him retreat from most social life except for the yachting race days. Winkelmann settled in Swanson in 1917, establishing an orchard and fowl house. By 1927 he had accumulated 100 acres (40 ha) of land at Swanson. While living in Swanson, Winkelmann was asked to take family portraits of a local family, and was inspired to teach the family's son, Olaf Petersen, how to use a camera. Petersen later became a well-regarded nature photographer in his own right.

Later life, death and legacy

Upon his retirement in 1928 Winkelmann sold his collection of Auckland city negatives to the Auckland Public Library. He spent his retirement in Swanson and Ponsonby. He died at Mount Eden on 5 July 1931.

In his will he left his collection of photographs and Glass-plate negatives were left to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. In 1972 his nephew Eric Fox gifted to the Auckland Museum more of Winkelmann's negatives, a large number of lantern slides, two photo albums, as well as a large number of original prints.

Winkelmann's glass-plate negatives stored at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and Auckland Libraries were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao register in 2023.

Personal life

Winkelmann never married. For a few years he shared a property on Great Barrier Island with a fellow Auckland bank clerk called Richard Harrington. Among Winkelmann's collection are photographs of him and friends bathing together in the hot pools on Great Barrier Island, sharing a bed, and kissing. Winkelmann also captured photographs of well-known cruising spots in Auckland.

Winkelmann was a member of the Canterbury Freehold Land Association, the Victoria Cruising Club, Auckland Yacht Club, the New Zealand Power Boat Association, the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts and the Auckland Savage Club.

Gallery

• Photographs by Henry Winkelmann
• 
  Showing the yacht Viking with the governor aboard, taken 30 November 1912
• 
  Showing two artillery guns in Albert Park, taken October 1898
• 
  Looking east towards Albert Park showing the Auckland Public Library, taken 1905
• 
  Looking north east from Bishops Palace, Ponsonby, taken 1900
• 
  Looking south towards Queen Street showing general activity on Queen Street Wharf, taken 8 February 1904
• 
  Showing a yachting demonstration on the departure of the eighth volunteer contingent for the Boer War, taken 1 February 1902
• 
  Showing cases of kauri gum being loaded on to a dray, taken July 1905

Bibliography

• Edwards, Vivian (1987). Winkelmann: images of early New Zealand. Illustrator: Henry Winkelmann. Auckland: Benton Ross Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-0-908636-39-6. OCLC 19734367. OL 2237398M. Wikidata Q124381612.
• Elliot, Robin; Kidd, Harold; Wilson, T.L. Rodney (1998). Winkelmann's Waitemata (Paperback). Auckland: David Ling Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-0-90899-052-8.
• Main, William (1977). Auckland Through a Victorian Lens (Hardback). Wellington: William Main. ISBN 978-0-90858-205-1.

External links

• Auckland Libraries: Henry Winkelmann
• Real Gold, Treasures of Auckland City Libraries - Henry Winkelmann
• Works of Winkelmann are held in the collection of the Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira