Watch: Standish and Preece, Christchurch Photographers

In 1885, photographers Frank Berry Standish and Alfred Ernest Lyttelton Preece founded the studio Standish and Preece. Their partnership only lasted 5 years but the business endured for 135, making it New Zealand’s longest-running photography studio.

Opening on 9 July 2021, the Museum's exhibition Standish and Preece: Christchurch Photographers 1885 – 2020 showcases how the studio's photographs document the changing faces of Cantabrians as well as the changing business of photography.

In this free public talk at the Friends of Canterbury Museum monthly meeting, the exhibition's curator Dr Jill Haley discussed the studio's history, her role in developing the exhibition and the trends she has observed in the Standish and Preece collection.

Jill was joined by Curator Special Projects Dan Stirland, who spoke about the Museum's project to catalogue and digitise the approximately 75,000 negatives in the Standish and Preece collection. This talk took place on 7 July 2021.