Judy Siers collection of James Chapman-Taylor photographic prints.

James Walter Chapman-Taylor (1878 - 1958) was born in London in June 1878, his family emigrated to New Zealand in 1879 settling near Stratford in Taranaki. While Chapman-Taylor is best known as an architect, he was also a skilled furniture designer, builder and photographer.

Chapman-Taylor’s photographs appeared in the architectural magazine Progress from 1907 and he was an active member of the Auckland Camera Club in the 1920s and the Wellington Camera Club from the late 1930s. As well as exhibiting his work Chapman -Taylor was a critic and judge for many local photographic competitions. He became an associate member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain in 1948.

Chapman Taylor‘s fourth wife Marion Hurst Gottwalz (nee Wickens) (1893-1969), whom he married in 1938, had an interest in anthropology and Maori life. Together they visited many pa and marae and the photographs of Maori subjects in Series 2 reflect this.

As a photographer Chapman-Taylor enjoyed experimenting with different lens, papers and exposures and some of the prints in the collection include his notes on exposure times on the reverse.

Reference: Judy Siers. 'Chapman-Taylor, James Walter', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 30-Oct-2012 URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/3c11/chapman-taylor-james-walter

Correspondence with Judy Siers, November 2010.