- Hardwicke Knight
Frederick Hardwicke Knight (b. 12 July 1911,
Stoke Newington , England-d. 25 August 2008,Broad Bay , New Zealand) was a prominent author and photographer fromOtago Peninsula ,New Zealand . An acknowledged expert on the history of southern New Zealand, he wrote many books related to earlyDunedin andOtago .Knight spent his formative years in England and in France, where he travelled in the 1920s, before becoming a travelling photographer working throughout Europe, notably spending time as a photojournalist in Stalinist Russia. A conscientious objector, Knight did not serve in the military in World War II, instead being part of the emergency medical services, working under Dunedin-born surgeon
Harold Gillies .In 1948, Knight was appointed director of Medical Photography at Enfield Hospital in England, and in 1957 he emigrated to New Zealand, taking up a position as head of the Medical Photography Department at
Otago Medical School . Here he helped develop important photographic techniques for diagnosing eye problems, and in 1965 he was elected president of the New Zealand Institute of Medical Photographers.Knight was long interested in historical photography, and published his first book on the subject, "Dunedin Then" in 1974. This was followed by another book on Dunedin historical photography in 1977 ("Princes Street by gaslight"), and the seven volume series "Otago cavalcade", published between 1983 and 1985. He also wrote several biographies of early New Zealand photographers, notably one of the
Burton Brothers ("Burton Brothers : photographers", 1980), and other books on local history such as "The ordeal of William Larnach" (1981) and "Buildings of Dunedin: an illustrated architectural guide to New Zealand's Victorian city" (co-written by Niel Wales, 1988). He also produced a volume of his own images ("Hardwicke Knight - Photographer") in 1983.Knight was an avid collector and documenter of local history, his home at Broad Bay on Otago Peninsula becoming a virtual museum. Knight's collection of over 20,000 items was acquired by the New Zealand national museum
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in 1991.External links
* [http://tpo.tepapa.govt.nz/ViewTopicExhibitDetail.asp?TopicFileID=0x000a3fd8 Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa biography]
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