A Long Wait

In the day of 45 second exposures, it was hard for an eight month old to stay still for a photo opportunity. This ambrotype of Mrs Anne Woon and her son James, taken in September 1858 in Whanganui, proves the point. James' blurred figure testifies to the time it took to capture a photographic image in the Victorian age.

Ambrotypes superseded daguerreotypes as the most popular form of photography from 1855 and, though 45 seconds was still a long time for an exposure, it wasn't a patch on the 15 minutes it could take for a daguerreotype to immortalise its subject.

Anne Woon was the wife of Garland William Robert Woon, one of the first proprietors of the Taranaki Herald.  After moving to Whanganui with his family in 1868 and 24 years serving as clerk of the Resident Magistrates Court, Garland met an unfortunate death on 6 June 1895. While strolling along the banks of the Whanganui River he suffered a heart attack, which caused him to tumble into the water and drown.

Tragedy also befell this photograph in 1981, when it was accidentally broken into 17 pieces. Its repair has brought Anne and James back to life, offering an evocative image of an early Taranaki family.