Burton Brothers was a thriving photographic business in Dunedin, New Zealand. Walter (1836-80) specialized in studio portraiture and Alfred (1834-1914) in landscape and ‘ethnographic’ photography. After Walter's death Alfred continued under the Burton Brothers name until 1898, and made two major series. Camera in the Coral Islands (1884) comprised 230 photographs from Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji—bland scenes and poses typical of the transient photographer. The Maori at Home (1885) followed, c.200 photographs of the Maori peoples of the Wanganui River ‘King Country’, who named Alfred tangata-whaka-ahua—‘The man who captured likenesses’. Also available singly, these commercially successful series are found in many contemporary travellers' albums and ethnographic collections. Sold through agents and catalogues, the Burtons' photographs remained in circulation as prints and postcards well into the 20th century.
— Elizabeth Edwards
Bibliography
- Faber, P., et al., Fotografie van de Burton Brothers in Nieuwe Zeeland 1866-1898 (1987)
