I have been really fortunate to have been given many old negatives and glass plates from my late Grandfather. Most of these were shot in and around New Zealand from about 1920-1925. While scanning & digitising some of these negatives I found one, labeled “Monument (Peninsula) 1924”
Its an image of the Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial in Dunedin that sits on a rock the size of a small house looking down the Otago harbour towards Aramoana and Taiaroa Head. This monument, built in 1923 is of a solitary soldier that stands as a symbol of the local young men who lost their lives in the First World War of 1914 -18. Many of the 52 whose names are engraved here died in foreign battlefields like Gallipoli, The Somme, and Ypres.
So with ANZAC day fast approaching I thought it fitting to take a walk with my family, not so far from our house, and try and recreate the image.
I really enjoyed myself navigating the rocks and Gorse bushes, with the original image as a reference on my smartphone. Walking exactly in my grandfather’s footsteps and even lying on the ground to frame the image. I imagined him with his camera doing the same while thinking “did he use that rock? or this one?” It didn’t take me long to realise that the handrail has been replaced and my focal length would have been different. I was shooting 28mm (35mm Format) and he (guessing here) 100mm on 120mm medium format. So the image compression is different.
