Henry Winkelmann

• Name — Henry Winkelmann • Born — 26 September 1860 • Birthplace — Bradford, England • Died — 5 July 1931 • Place of death — Auckland, New Zealand • Occupation — Photographer

Henry Winkelmann was born at 8 Melbourne Place, Bradford, Yorkshire, England on 26 September 1860, one of eight children of Peter Winkelmann, a stuff and yarn merchant, and Louise Schüller, German immigrants to the United Kingdom. He grew up at Follingworth House in Gomersal, where his family moved to in 1865. He may have attended school in Doncaster and Neuwied, Germany. A musical child, Winkelmann learnt how to play the piano, organ and the zither. His older brother, Charles, immigrated to New Zealand in 1875, where he first became a schoolteacher, then a chemist and later a photographer. After Charles had emigrated, Henry took over many family responsibilities. The family moved twice during this period, first to Carlton Hall in Bramley then to Selbourne Grove in Manningham, where Winkelmann's father died in 1877. In July 1878, Henry left England aboard the Calypso, following his brother to New Zealand, arriving at Port Chalmers in Dunedin in October. His mother, Louise, and five sisters followed him to New Zealand in the mid-1880s.

By 1881 after travelling the country, Winkelmann was living in a boarding house in Hobson Street, Auckland. He and fellow boarder Harold Willey Hudson, were hired by businessman Thomas Henderson to claim uninhabited Jarvis Island, a location valued for its guano, attempting to secure the island for a period of at least three months. Leaving on the schooner Sunbeam in June 1881, arriving in August, the pair spent a total of eight months stranded and isolated on the island, during which Winkelmann began sketching as a hobby.

• Illustration — View of Winkelmann's property Ti Tree Flat near Medlands Beach on Great Barrier Island in July 1892. • Illustration — View of Rosalie Bay near Winkelmann's property on Great Barrier Island in 1895. This photograph won Winkelmann's first award in a photographic competition in the New Zealand Graphic. In November 1882, Winkelmann joined the Bank of New Zealand. He began work at the Wellington branch, before moving to the Levuka, Fiji branch from November 1883, returning to New Zealand in July 1886, after which he worked at the Queen Street branch. While in Fiji, Winkelmann's mother and sisters migrated to New Zealand. Winkelmann was based in Christchurch from April 1887 to July 1888, and at Sydney from late 1889 to April 1891, and Wellington from November 1894. Winkelmann first purchased property on Great Barrier Island in the early 1880s. In November 1888, he purchased acre of land near Medlands Beach, which he called Ti Tree Flat, and established an orchard at the location. In January 1895, Winkelmann and his colleague Richard Cecil Moorsom Harrington resigned from the ban, purchasing acre of land at Rosalie Bay, which they called the Rosalie Bay Estate. Later that year, Winkelmann decided to leave Great Barrier Island due to the financial disaster of the farming enterprise, with Harrington remaining to continue farming. Winkelmann asked to be reinstated at the bank, and was placed in Blenheim, where he worked until 1897, returning to Auckland after hearing of his mother's death. Winkelmann supplemented his income by teaching the zither and performing in concerts; with Mrs. Buckland of Highwic being among his clients. Winkelmann also began making money from photography, after purchasing a Lancaster Instantograph camera in April 1892. He likely set up a darkroom in his mother's house called Claremont at 14 Dock Street (now Huia Street), Devonport, where the family moved to in 1892. In 1895, Winkelmann won a second prize in the New Zealand Graphic photographic competition, for a photograph Winkelmann took of Rosalie Bay. His interests in yachting began in 1893 after meeting the Horton brothers, who owned the yacht Tawera. Winkelmann would accompany the family on their cruises, and began taking photographs of watercraft during this period. On return, Winkelmann worked as an agent for the S. S. Kawau, sold insurance for the Magdeberg Insurance Company, and in 1898 joined the Coastal Steamship Company, working as the secretary and managed the S. S. Kotiti. In early 1900, Winkelmann's brother-in-law Charles Fox had died, leaving Winkelmann's sister a widow, needing to take care of their three boys.

• Illustration — The Petersen family photographed at Swanson in the late 1920s In late 1913 Winkelmann purchased a farm at Kaukapakapa and he spent much of World War I there, a period that saw him retreat from most social life except for yachting race days. Winkelmann was commissioned less as a photographer from 1914 onward, and was not able to recover his business after the war. Biographer Vivian Edwards suggests may have been due to Winkelmann's German surname and anti-German sentiment in New Zealand during World War I. Despite this, Winkelmann won his most prestigious award, the grand prix award at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, during this period. Winkelmann increasingly withdrew from Auckland social life, and by September 1917, had resigned from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. His withdrawal may have been in part due to grief, as two of his nephews and his friend Arthur Aitken had been killed during World War I, and his sister Emily dying of cancer in 1918. Winkelmann's loss of hearing intensified during the 1910s and 1920s, which may have also been a contributing factor. Winkelmann settled in Swanson in 1917, establishing an orchard and fowl house. By 1927 he had accumulated 100 acre of land in the area. While living in Swanson, Winkelmann was asked to take family portraits of a local family, and was inspired to teach the family's son, Olaf Petersen, how to use a camera. Petersen later became a well-regarded nature photographer in his own right.

Winkelmann never married. Among Winkelmann's collection are photographs of him and friends bathing together in the hot pools on Great Barrier Island, sharing a bed, and kissing. Winkelmann also captured photographs of well-known cruising spots in Auckland. An image taken by Winkelmann of two men kissing aboard a yacht was used as the cover of the book Best Mates: Gay Writing in Aotearoa New Zealand (1997) by Peter Wells and Rex Pilgrim, something which at the time was against the wishes of the management of Auckland War Memorial Museum, who owned the photograph. Winkelmann was a member of the Auckland Yacht Club from 1899, the Canterbury Freehold Land Association, the Victoria Cruising Club, the New Zealand Power Boat Association, the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, the Auckland Savage Club, and was a Freemason.

• Illustration — Showing the yacht Viking with the governor aboard, taken 30 November 1912 • Illustration — Showing two artillery guns in Albert Park, taken October 1898 • Illustration — Looking east towards Albert Park showing the Auckland Public Library, taken 1905 • Illustration — Looking south towards Queen Street showing general activity on Queen Street Wharf, taken 8 February 1904 • Illustration — Showing a yachting demonstration on the departure of the eighth volunteer contingent for the Boer War, taken 1 February 1902 • Illustration — Showing cases of kauri gum being loaded on to a dray, taken July 1905 • Illustration — Two men, Walter Airey and Bob Horton, kissing on board the yacht Tawera c. 1900