
Katarina Hansard (Ngāpuhi, c.1860-1906) and Irene Koppel (1911-2004)
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 12:20 AM
Description
Lissa Mitchell, Curator of Historical Photography, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington New Zealand
Katarina Hansard (Ngāpuhi, c.1860-1906) and Irene Koppel (1911-2004)
My talk will focus on the lives and photographic careers of two women photographers who worked in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and who both experienced a double “othering” of their cultural and gender identities. Katarina Hansard (Ngāpuhi, c.1860-1906) was an indigenous Māori woman who worked as a professional photographer from 1892 until shortly before her death from tuberculosis. Hansard, with the assistance of her daughter Aneta (Ngāpuhi, c.1877-1966), operated commercial portrait studios on the land of her people in the small Northland town of Kaikohe and later in the South Island cities of Christchurch and Dunedin. Irene Koppel (1911-2004) was a German Jewish refugee who arrived in Aotearoa in 1936 and who resumed her career as a professional photographer working in studio portraiture and photojournalism during the Second World War in Wellington, N.Z.. My research into the contribution of women photographers in Aotearoa from 1860 to 1960 focuses on the impact of the lives and systemic structures of society that enabled and hindered the photographic contributions of women. This research is concerned with the ways that notions of identity, family, and place are intertwined with the ways women are able and unable to conduct their lives, and resulted in the publication of the book Through Shaded Glass – Women and Photography in Aotearoa, New Zealand, 1860 to 1960 (Wellington, New Zealand: Te Papa Press, 2023).
Lissa Mitchell is Curator of Historical Photography at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington and is the author of the recently published book, Through Shaded Glass – Women and Photography in Aotearoa, New Zealand, 1860 to 1960.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Mitchell, Lissa, "Katarina Hansard (Ngāpuhi, c.1860-1906) and Irene Koppel (1911-2004)" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 3.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/3
Katarina Hansard (Ngāpuhi, c.1860-1906) and Irene Koppel (1911-2004)
Lissa Mitchell, Curator of Historical Photography, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington New Zealand
Katarina Hansard (Ngāpuhi, c.1860-1906) and Irene Koppel (1911-2004)
My talk will focus on the lives and photographic careers of two women photographers who worked in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and who both experienced a double “othering” of their cultural and gender identities. Katarina Hansard (Ngāpuhi, c.1860-1906) was an indigenous Māori woman who worked as a professional photographer from 1892 until shortly before her death from tuberculosis. Hansard, with the assistance of her daughter Aneta (Ngāpuhi, c.1877-1966), operated commercial portrait studios on the land of her people in the small Northland town of Kaikohe and later in the South Island cities of Christchurch and Dunedin. Irene Koppel (1911-2004) was a German Jewish refugee who arrived in Aotearoa in 1936 and who resumed her career as a professional photographer working in studio portraiture and photojournalism during the Second World War in Wellington, N.Z.. My research into the contribution of women photographers in Aotearoa from 1860 to 1960 focuses on the impact of the lives and systemic structures of society that enabled and hindered the photographic contributions of women. This research is concerned with the ways that notions of identity, family, and place are intertwined with the ways women are able and unable to conduct their lives, and resulted in the publication of the book Through Shaded Glass – Women and Photography in Aotearoa, New Zealand, 1860 to 1960 (Wellington, New Zealand: Te Papa Press, 2023).
Lissa Mitchell is Curator of Historical Photography at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington and is the author of the recently published book, Through Shaded Glass – Women and Photography in Aotearoa, New Zealand, 1860 to 1960.
Comments
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