James Bragge
Encyclopedia
James Bragge was a well known and respected photographer in New Zealand during the mid-to-late 19th century.
, County Durham
, England. His father was also called James, and he worked as an architect. His mother’s name was Harriett (née Wigglesworth). In 1854, at the age of 21, James Bragge Jr. married Elizabeth Ann Fish. They had two daughters. He remarried in 1900, at the age of 67, to Lydia Segus Banfield, who bore him a further daughter. Little more is known of Bragge, but we do know that he came to New Zealand in 1865. Within a short while he had opened a photographic studio in Manners Street, Wellington. This studio was advertised as “The New Zealand Academy of Photographic Art”. During his New Zealand life, he made at least two trips over the Rimutaka hills to the Wairarapa, and the Manawatu. In 1871, he travelled with his family to Auckland. Around 1879, he had already come back to Wellington, and opened a studio in Lambton Quay. It ran until the 1890s. The Wellington City Council commissioned Bragge to take various photographs of Wellington, for show at the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880. He died in Wellington on the 17th July, 1908.
Bragge’s early life was actually that of a cabinetmaker. It was only with the advancement in technology that during the early sixties he was able to engage in photography. Where he gained the skill, no one knows. He started out like many photographers, doing portraits in a studio. He later chose to travel, with a horse-drawn carriage containing his darkroom, around the lower North Island. He travelled to small towns and took photos of the locations, some including the local people. It appears that he made postcards from the photos, and sold them to the townsfolk. They in turn would send these postcards to their relative in England, as a kind-of curio of what NZ is like. His photographic skill is very evident in the many photos he took during the Wairarapa expeditions. William Main states in his book, Bragge’s Wellington and the Wairarapa, “Street scenes of 1869 are not rare, but those filled with people are.” This may be just the interest many people see with Bragge’s photos. A wide variety of his photos include people, some even believed to be Bragge himself.
“It was 1876 when Bragge first hitched a mobile darkroom to a horse, and rode northwards toward the Wairarapa, taking photos along the way. These show places like Danniverke, Norsewood and Eketahuna, where huge tracts of land were being cleared, and roads bridges and settlements were being built. Bragge’s photos were immediately popular with Wellington audiences, who saw them as representing progress. And today, they’re valuable records of settlement process.”
Biography
According to his death certificate, he was born in 1833, in South ShieldsSouth Shields
South Shields is a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne to Tyne Dock, and about downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne...
, County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
, England. His father was also called James, and he worked as an architect. His mother’s name was Harriett (née Wigglesworth). In 1854, at the age of 21, James Bragge Jr. married Elizabeth Ann Fish. They had two daughters. He remarried in 1900, at the age of 67, to Lydia Segus Banfield, who bore him a further daughter. Little more is known of Bragge, but we do know that he came to New Zealand in 1865. Within a short while he had opened a photographic studio in Manners Street, Wellington. This studio was advertised as “The New Zealand Academy of Photographic Art”. During his New Zealand life, he made at least two trips over the Rimutaka hills to the Wairarapa, and the Manawatu. In 1871, he travelled with his family to Auckland. Around 1879, he had already come back to Wellington, and opened a studio in Lambton Quay. It ran until the 1890s. The Wellington City Council commissioned Bragge to take various photographs of Wellington, for show at the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880. He died in Wellington on the 17th July, 1908.
Bragge’s early life was actually that of a cabinetmaker. It was only with the advancement in technology that during the early sixties he was able to engage in photography. Where he gained the skill, no one knows. He started out like many photographers, doing portraits in a studio. He later chose to travel, with a horse-drawn carriage containing his darkroom, around the lower North Island. He travelled to small towns and took photos of the locations, some including the local people. It appears that he made postcards from the photos, and sold them to the townsfolk. They in turn would send these postcards to their relative in England, as a kind-of curio of what NZ is like. His photographic skill is very evident in the many photos he took during the Wairarapa expeditions. William Main states in his book, Bragge’s Wellington and the Wairarapa, “Street scenes of 1869 are not rare, but those filled with people are.” This may be just the interest many people see with Bragge’s photos. A wide variety of his photos include people, some even believed to be Bragge himself.
“It was 1876 when Bragge first hitched a mobile darkroom to a horse, and rode northwards toward the Wairarapa, taking photos along the way. These show places like Danniverke, Norsewood and Eketahuna, where huge tracts of land were being cleared, and roads bridges and settlements were being built. Bragge’s photos were immediately popular with Wellington audiences, who saw them as representing progress. And today, they’re valuable records of settlement process.”