New Zealand photography first emerged in the mid-nineteenth century, and over time has become an important part of New Zealand art. A number of photography associations exist to support photographers in New Zealand.
Frances Mary Hodgkins was a New Zealand painter chiefly of landscape and still life, and for a short period was a designer of textiles. She was born and raised in New Zealand, but spent most of her working life in England. She is considered one of New Zealand's most prestigious and influential painters, although it is the work from her life in Europe, rather than her home country, on which her reputation rests.
Alfred Henry O'Keeffe, was a notable New Zealand artist and art teacher, who spent the majority of his life in Dunedin. During the first quarter of the twentieth century, he was one of the few New Zealand artists to engage with new ideas while staying in New Zealand. At this time most adventurous New Zealand painters, such as Frances Hodgkins, went overseas. He has sometimes been described as a Vasari - a recorder of artists and their doings - based upon his published recollections, which are the only first hand published account of that milieu.
Petrus van der Velden, who is also known as Paulus van der Velden, was a Dutch artist who spent much of his later career in New Zealand.
James McLauchlan Nairn was a New Zealand painter who strongly influenced New Zealand painting in the late 19th century. He believed in en plein air or painting outdoors.
Theodorus Johannes Schoon was a New Zealand artist, photographer and carver of Dutch descent.
John H. Gibb was a Scottish, marine painter who settled in New Zealand in 1876.
Mabel Hill was a New Zealand artist known for landscapes, portraits, and floral still lifes. She taught at the Wellington School of Design.
Alfred Henry Burton is a nineteenth-century New Zealand photographer.
Burton Brothers (1866–1914) was one of New Zealand's most important nineteenth-century photographic studios and was based in Dunedin, New Zealand. It was founded by Walter John Burton (1836–1880) in 1866 as the Grand Photographic Saloon and Gallery and was situated in Princes Street, Dunedin.
Frederic Hardwicke Knight, QSO was a London-born photographer, historian and collector who emigrated to New Zealand in 1957 to take up a medical photography position in Dunedin. He lived at Broad Bay until ten months before his death at a Dunedin nursing home. His publications include New Zealand's first comprehensive photographic history, many compilations of early Dunedin and Otago photographs, biographies of several early New Zealand photographers and of British photographer William Russell Sedgfield, three books of architectural history and a seminal history of the Otago Peninsula. He was awarded a QSO in 1991. An eccentric polymath, Knight was well known for his striking appearance, his ramshackle Broad Bay cottage crammed with his collections and his self-proclaimed exploits, most notably his claim to have found timbers on Mount Ararat that might have been Noah's Ark.
Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull was a New Zealand merchant, dandy and book collector. On his death, his collection became the nucleus of the Alexander Turnbull Collection, initially housed in his residence, Turnbull House, but as of 1987 housed with the collections of the National Library of New Zealand, a body formed in 1965 by the amalgamation of three libraries, including the one bearing Turnbull's name. In 1913 Turnbull anonymously donated his Māori and Pacific artefacts to the Dominion Museum.
Thomas Andrew was a New Zealand photographer who lived in Samoa from 1891 until his death in 1939.
Charles Yates Fell was a New Zealand barrister, politician and watercolour artist.
John Buchanan was a New Zealand botanist and scientific artist. He was a fellow of the Linnean Society.
George Chance was a prominent and well-respected New Zealand pictorialist photographer active in the early 20th century. He is best known for his photographs of landscape and rural scenes produced during the 1920s and '30s.
Norah Carter was a New Zealand photographer. Her work is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Mary Elizabeth Greenwood was a New Zealand photographer. She was an early promoter of the autochrome photographic process in New Zealand. Her work is held by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and by the National Library of New Zealand.
Adrienne Martyn is a New Zealand art photographer. Her work has been collected by numerous art galleries, museums and libraries in New Zealand including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Dowse Art Museum, the Auckland Art Gallery, the Christchurch Art Gallery and the Hocken Library.
Harriet Sophia Cobb was a New Zealand photographer. Her works are held in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Cobb operated two successful photography studios in the late 1800s and into the 20th century.
