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PLEASE CONTRIBUTE
The New Zealand Postcard Society is committed to growing the knowledge base of our early postcard photographers and publishers. To do this we need your help.
Please check your own postcard collections and if your are able to add to the content of the 'George Chance' list below then we would like to hear from you. You can do this very simply by using the 'Contribute' form provided at the end of the list. Fill in all the relevant details about your postcard/s and upload an image (if you choose to) by using the facility provided. Our preference is for 600 dpi .jpg images (file size of less than 5MB).
SECURITY OF YOUR MATERIAL
All files uploaded to the NZPS website go directly to the website control panel along with the contributor's details. Currently only the Webmaster has access to this area. For your protection, before publishing any images all photographs are resized down to 800 pixels and are edited in such a way that they display adequately but have limited clarity as printed enlargements. The photos will not be used in any other way on the NZPS website other than that for which they were intended by the owner. Postcard lists with attached images are located in the 'Members only' area of the website.
Expanding the content of the Society's postcard lists will go a long way towards developing a broader understanding of the images captured, and the postcards published by our early postcard photographers and publishers.
Please take the time to contribute to this archive.
George Chance, Photographer - by Alan Craig & Jeff Long (excerpts from PP Issue 96, P22)
[From an article by Linda Tyler, University of Auckland, 2006.]
George Chance (1885-1963) was born in Liverpool, trained as an optician, and emigrated to Dunedin in 1909. He was interested in photography from an early age, owning his first threepenny camera when he was twelve years old, and joining the local camera club in London when he was only fourteen. After leaving school, he was employed by Houghton's, a photographic manufacturing firm to work with cameras. By 1905 he had shifted to the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company in Regent Street. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1909 to work for Dawson's in Dunedin.
He was interested in pictorial photography as an art form. Serious amateur photographers wanted to separate their own aesthetic work from the random results of the "point and shooters". Pictorial photographers composed their images aesthetically like a painting, emphasizing the role of craft in the production of the image. He sometimes "improved on Nature" but aimed at getting the perfect negative in the first place.
He won numerous awards, and was instrumental in photography being accepted by Art Societies, and he eventually became President of the New Zealand Association of Art Societies.
During the 1930s George Chance photographs had become well-known through publication in magazines and newspapers such as the Weekly News and Brett's Christmas Annual. For three years during World War Two, he produced The New Zealand Highways and Byways Calendars for Coulls Somerville Wilkie in Dunedin.
George Chance images had mass appeal - over 30,000 prints sold during his lifetime. His photographs are now sought after again and valued for their local content as well as for the technical tricks that once made them so controversial. Some George Chance images appeared on postcards, although it isn’t known whether or not these were photographs originally.
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George Chance postcard list |
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Number |
Title |
Images |
Backs |
Total of 6 listings |
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34116 |
Dunedin from Mt Cargill Geo Chance |
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Plain back |
34117 |
Morning Mists Lake Wakatipu. Geo Chance |
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Plain back |
34121 |
Otago University, Dunedin. Geo Chance |
|
Plain back |
34122 |
Winter Sunlight Arrowtown. Geo Chance |
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Plain back |
34127 |
The Waterfront, Queenstown |  |
Plain back |
34132 |
Warrington Beach near Dunedin. Geo Chance |
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Plain back |
