Mrs Rabone

One of the major nineteenth century studios specialising in portraits of Māori was the American Photographic Company in Auckland, New Zealand. Little is known about the studio, why it took this name, or about its operator, a John McGarrigle. It ran from at least 1869 to 1876, and in 1873 advertised that it had the largest selection of Māori portraits for sale, offering them at six shillings a dozen. It was also evidently no upmarket operation. Peeling linoleum, torn backgrounds and plain furnishings are all visible in cropped out sections of the negatives. The portraits themselves often seem rough and ready too, lacking in the careful and consistent construction of ‘Māoriness’ of later photographers such as the Foy Brothers or WHT Partington, with their standardised poses and props of customary clothing and taonga. However, it is their very lack of artifice that gives the American Photographic Co. images a directness and honesty that appeals today.

A handful of McGarrigle’s subjects are well dressed in European clothes, and may have commissioned him to take their portrait. This could be the case here, but it is also possible that the Mrs Rabone whose name is scratched on the original glass negative is an employer or sponsor of the sitter who commissioned her photograph. The mystery is deepened by the fact that research has failed to reveal any information about a Mrs Rabone of this time.

Athol McCredie

This essay originally appeared in Art at Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2009).