Wānaka photographer Sampford (Sam) Cathie’s day job is photographing buildings.
But he is also developing a “bit of a Covid lockdown project” into an additional part of his business.
Sifting through photo collections at the Lakes District Museum in Arrowtown, the Hocken Library in Dunedin and libraries in Wellington and Auckland, he chooses photographs of scenes that seemed ripe for updating.
One of those photos was a view from Mt Iron.
The 1936 version, published by the Auckland Weekly News shows an unidentified man in a suit overlooking a pre-urban Roys Bay.
Mr Cathie overlaid the old photo on a photograph of the same view in 2024.
“That was one of the trickiest ones to piece together.
“You need to make sure that the size of the person is correct with the size of the trees and the middle ground and the background.
“So initially, I had the mountains lined up but in the foreground, the rocks were too small so it looked like the man was hovering in the air.”
“I had to actually go and redo it three or four times.”
He has treated a dozen or more photos in the same way and has another 100 in mind.
“If the project takes off a bit and if I can sell some prints, then I’d love to expand the project and do something South Island wide and then nationwide.”
Mr Cathie sold about a dozen prints at the Wheels at Wānaka Private Vehicle Museum Labour Weekend open day, with some of the proceeds going to a Rotary Club fundraiser.
“The more prints I can sell, the more time and effort I can put into creating more of the project and then eventually I’d really love to do a book … a coffee table book of some sort.”
Some of the photos are of Queenstown and Dunedin.
Strangely, the photos of the Cardrona Hotel — old and new — differ in only one respect.
The old car out front faces in opposite directions; nothing else about hotel’s facade appears to have changed.
Mr Cathie, who has been a professional photographer for 12 years, “took a chance” and moved to Wanaka with his wife Grace when work in Auckland dried up during Covid.
