Aerial View

Referred to as “the Google Earth of its day”, Whites Aviation Ltd showed New Zealand as the public had never seen it before. The Auckland company’s aerial photographs – still adorning many lounge walls today – documented the country’s rapidly changing landscapes and growing towns from the 1930s through to the 1980s. The company was formally established in 1945 by Leo White, who in the 1920s was the first New Zealander to combine an expertise in photography with a passion for aviation. He travelled the length of the country by air in the early 1950s to produce his 1952 publication “Whites Pictorial Reference of New Zealand.” The book was a hit, and Whites Aviation was firmly established as a household name. Operating before colour film was widely available and reliable, Whites Aviation’s black and white photographs were often coloured by hand to give them a more realistic appearance.

This aerial view of Urenui from 1947 has been livened up with touches of green, blue and red: a limited palette, but effective none the less. Today’s Google Earth view looks dramatically different, with streets and houses now well-established on the large red-tinted block of land near the mouth of the Urenui River.