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November 10, 2011
Joyce Campbell has recently been working onsite in a field darkroom to produce ambrotypes and daguerreotypes at Te Reinga, home of the Taniwha Hinekörako. She says that:
Contemporary cameras do not lend themselves to the depiction of mystery. Digital cameras have made photography an increasingly descriptive medium and also one that is open to greater manipulation than ever before. By contrast, the nineteenth century techniques of ambrotype and daguerreotype provide the photographer with extraordinarily detail, depth and richness while also having an innate tendency to produce artifacts from silver and ether that are spontaneous, open to interpretation and often extraordinarily beautiful.
Campbell has taken photographs of caves, gullies, pools and cascades at Te Reinga and she hopes that in the silver we might catch a glimpse of the Taniwha as well.
Joyce Campbell, (look at her basking) variant #2, Te Taniwha
Campbell's reference to the Taniwha is to a mythical creature reputed to inhabit dangerous areas in New Zealand, especially waterways such as river bends, deep ponds, swamps and treacherous coastlines. The taniwha seems to take on diverse forms, but is most commonly depicted as a large water-dwelling creature with a lizard or dragon-like form.
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