New Zealand 21st Battalion Association

In this story, Auckland Museum Collection Photographer Richard Ng showcases some of his favourites from the 21st Battalion Association collection. Read an interview with Richard about his work and hobbies on our website.

On its own, each object in a museum's collection tells a story, and, together, they describe a much deeper narrative. But in photographing objects for the museum's records, a photographer must record both the object's human story and its physical attributes—each nick and scratch, every dog-eared corner and patched hole.

The objects are relatively modern with some showing signs of use or natural weathering by time. Every object, with all its character and intricate details, was lit and accurately photographed in its own specific studio lighting setup.

To maintain the integrity of all our digital files there was no post-processing to be done to the image, making it critical to ensure we get a true image representation of the object in-camera at the point of capture.

The challenges we, as photographers, face are not only to accurately digitise every object to archival standards, but also to exercise our innate creative desire to bring the each object to life—seeing each in a new light. Doing it justice.

Even though most of the objects are from modern times, it was not lost on me the historical significance and stories they hold. Being the collection imaging photographer, I have the opportunity and honour to append to the story—adding our digital layer to the object’s history.