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Walking into Rewa Rendall’s photographic studio is like walking back in time – and there’s a good reason for that, it’s because you are.

The photographic studio once belonged to Sir Joseph Kinsey, shipping agent for Sir Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackelton. Pioneer photographer Herbert Ponting who famously accompanied Captain Robert Falcon Scott on his Antarctic voyage stood in this very darkroom and developed images that have become part of this tragic narrative.

The Kinsey studio is based at Ferrymead Historic Park and it’s where Rewa now practises her photographic alchemy.

After a trip to the Antarctic and a resulting exhibition – Frozen Echos – Rewa struck upon the idea of following in Ponting’s footsteps to go beyond the digital and celluloid and return to a bellows camera and glass plate negatives.

By chance – or perhaps by magic – she was offered the use of the Kinsey Studio and Darkroom, a sanctuary where history converges with artistry and the echoes of early explorers resonate, and it’s now a place where Rewa continues Kinsey’s legacy offering visitors a unique timeless portrait experience – Legacy Portraits.

“I feel like I have come full circle” explains Rewa. Having sailed across the Drake Passage and explored the Antarctic Peninsula she has not only walked in their footsteps but has a passion for the historic photographic processes used by these early explorers.

Laughingly describing herself as a ‘photographic alchemist’ she remarks on the magic of the chemistry used in this 100-year- old technique appropriately named the “black art”.

“I use light and silver to put the layers of someone’s life down on tin or glass and make it last for generations.”

Her process is intense. She first takes a piece of aluminium, that she then pours a thick blood-like emulsion to it. She has a special formula, an old tried and tested recipe, made by a guru in the North Island.

The coated plate is then bathed in silver before it is then ready to be placed in the back of the camera. This technique dates back to 1856 and is known as “the wet plate” process and was used prior to the development of film.

“It’s pretty involved,” explains Rewa. “It was originally called a black art because if you get the silver onto your fingertips and then go out into the sunshine the tips of your fingers go black”

Ponting was influenced by this process and with a leap of technology just prior to the ships departing for the ice, Ponting took with him “dry plates’ which enabled him to keep the tips of his fingers from going black, although the frost bite may have been far worse for a photographer in such extreme conditions.

The process of actually taking the picture is an involved one and it all happens upside down and back to front. While the alchemy is happening in the silver bath the photographer performs a dance with the camera – first focusing the lens by moving the bellows, while the subject stays extremely still. The plate is then inserted into the camera and then the photo is taken with a flash, the equivalent of the midday sun. The image is now imprinted on the plate.

The process then is very similar to conventional photography where the image is taken out of the slide, immersed into a developer bath and then into a bath of fixer.

“This is where the magic happens. The development of the plate makes the image turn from a negative into a positive with rich warm sepia like tones and echoes of the past. Because it’s on tin, once the image is stable you can varnish it, and it will last for generations. Soldiers had these images of loved ones with them during the war, often the tinplate outlived the soldier.”

The images are quite unique. They are different to modern day photography, as they pick up shadows and contours, and they capture something that a digital camera cannot.

“You’re capturing the narrative of someone’s face. It takes time to take the picture, and time to process it, so it’s a much more engaging and conscious way of taking a photograph. With a digital camera there’s almost a disconnect, perhaps almost a disposable image. There are hundreds of thousands of images uploaded every second and where’s the consciousness in that? There’s so much presence in this because the process is so engaging and beautiful.”

As the sitter, it’s also a different process. A long way from simply instagramming on the beach.

“You have to think about it as a sitter. My job is not to take an amazing picture of you, my job is to take a picture that allows you to see yourself. That’s the beauty of photography for me. it’s the art of observation. For me what’s important is capturing something that’s more than just a moment.”

It wasn’t so long ago that most people had no idea what they looked like. For most of history mirrors were only available to royalty and the aristocracy and until the advent of photography most people didn’t know how their faces actually looked.

Rewa says her legacy portraits reflect this history by revealing to people an image of themselves that is truly unfiltered.

“They come in and have an experience – and then I create the plate and varnish it – and then it goes into a box that you can either frame or keep as a legacy plate.”

The original process for Ponting was even more labour intensive. While on the Frozen Continent, to develop his images he would have had to heat up seal blubber to create a heat source to lift the base temperature of the chemistry enough so that he could develop it. It would have taken a whole lot of patience and determination to process just one photo.

While it’s a little quicker than that – the process for Rewa is a long and involved one -it mirrors her own life in photography.

Rewa grew up in Hong Kong – her dad was an architect – and he had a Hasselblad camera and darkroom in their apartment. As a child she become hooked on photography. She went to the Canberra School of Fine Art in Australia where she ‘spent four years in the darkroom’. Photography has always been her main artistic practice.

Her work has taken her beyond the frame and into the remote landscapes of Australia, New Zealand, Europe and across the Southern Ocean to the Antarctic Peninsula. But the magic of photography is something she still gets a thrill from.

“Every image still feels like magic. You don’t know how it’s going to turn out.”

Legacy Portraits is a brand-new business for Rewa and she’s hoping people will be keen to explore this antique type of portraiture.

“It really seems to hit a nerve with seniors – maybe because there really isn’t a lot on offer that is special to them. With my father passing away recently, I heard a lot of stories from older people, and they were incredible. Not to mention they have such incredible faces and I wanted to capture that. Ponting set the bar really high and I really want to follow that example in my work.”

Her process has a lot of echoes: to the past; to Christchurch; and to exploration.

“There are a lot of threads. There’s a lovely poem called ‘The Master Weavers Plan’ – it describes the moment when you remove your weaving from the frame and turn the tapestry over revealing the pattern of your entire life – all the threads come together and it’s not until you take it off the weaving frame that you can see the full picture.”

Funnily enough Rewa comes from a family of master weavers – Walter and Joy Ashford were her grandparents – and she feels that she is continuing their artistic tradition in her own way.

“For me my tapestry threads are peoples’ stories and I’m just the person who weaves it together. I’m just an alchemist. I’m not going to make you anything more than you are because you’re enough.”

You can hear Rewa speak about her process and the continuation of Kinsey’s Legacy during The Days of Ice Festival this October.

Days of Ice Festival

Tūranga – Christchurch City Library

Friday 11 October

1pm – 2pm – An Expedition into Portraiture

And join Rewa in Kinsey’s darkroom where she will share this magic process with you during the Heritage Festival, also in October.

Christchurch Heritage Festival

Ferrymead Heritage Park

Sunday 13 October, 10am – 12 midday. Tickets are $20

“I’m so thrilled to be continuing where Sir Joseph Kinsey left off. Adding new faces and stories to the many that entered this unique space before.”

Tintype portraits from Kinsey’s Darkroom will form part of “Frozen Echoes” photographic exhibition in October at the Pumanawa Gallery, at the Arts Centre.

For more information on Rewa and her upcoming events click here.