In 1921 Una Garlick became the first woman member of the
Auckland Camera Club; later renamed the Auckland Photographic Society. She
was awarded their annual medal in 1926, following on from her many successes at
the Club’s monthly competitions.
Garlick exhibited internationally to acclaim between
1925 and 1931 and this success resulted in her becoming an Associate of the Royal
Photographic Society. Such recognition meant that she ranked with Gerald Jones
as one of New Zealand’s most famous camera artists of the period.
Garlick liked experimenting with photographic printing media;
soon venturing beyond conventional gelatin silver printing papers toned with
sepia to the use of a bromoil technique, the extremely challenging vehicle of platinum
printing and onto sheet fed gravure. Her ability with these difficult printing
techniques makes her images frequently appear very velvety yet also matt and metallic.
She moved away from interleaving negatives with sheer tissue towards a deeper
and sharper focus.
Una Garlick’s stylistic shift towards the unambiguous image parallels
what had already occurred during the 1920s in America (with Paul Strand and
Alfred Stieglitz) and Germany (with Albert Renger Patzsch and August Sander). I sense that the lessons of American
Precisionism and German Neue Sachlichkeit gave her a fresher perspective than
almost all of her Auckland Camera Club cohorts.
There is no question that Una
Garlick was familiar with copies of The
Studio, Das Deutsche Lichtbild and
Camera Work. Maurice Lennard recalled
for me some decades ago that she had consulted his copies of Das Deutsche Lichtbild and Camera Work on a number of occasions.
Meetings of the Camera Club always involved discussions about what was
happening off shore photographically.
An anonymous donor has recently generously gifted a fine
late landscape by Una Garlick to the Gallery’s collection. The raking afternoon
light is seen from the summit of Remuera (Mount Hobson). With its semi-sharp
and deep focus has a full register of tones from dark brown to white, this
image is a bravura example of Garlick’s habit of incorporating cloud portraits
into her landscapes. In many ways, Garlick transitioned from her early pictorialism
to a sharper photographic focus that is much more in tune with what was occurring
in California during the 1920s and 1930s.
Image credit:
Una Garlick (1883–1951)
Auckland c1935
sheet fed gravure
74 x 100mm
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of an anonymous
donor, 2014
