Volcanologist Dr Janine Krippner has made an explosive discovery.
Century old views of Mount Ngāuruhoe on the Central Plateau in eruption held by the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington are a smouldering sham.
Mount Ngāuruhoe supposedly in eruption, 1909. Alexander Turnbull Library.
Krippner, a Waikato University honorary research associate based in Taupō but born in Te Awamutu, was studying the impact of Mount Ngāuruhoe eruptions throughout history.
She noticed not all was it seemed with two views captured on March 29, 1909 by postcard photographer William A. Price.
“Having studied photography in high school I recognise that the burn technique has been used to create a fake ash plume,” Krippner said.
In the photographic development process in the darkroom light exposure had been increased in part of the images to make the photograph darker.
“This is very clearly not an ash plume.
“My guess is someone was having a laugh and or were disappointed that they didn’t capture an eruption that day.
“The sort of ash plume they are trying to depict was very common before eruptive activity ceased in 1975. If this were real, it would have been ash emission that wasn’t very energetic – the wind can blow the ash away before it manages to get very high.
“This was also a common direction for the ash to travel based on dominant wind directions. I imagine who ever created it had seen an eruption, or at least photographs showing eruptions at Ngāuruhoe,” The News columnist said.
Price began postcard photography in 1906 in Whanganui, later moving to Northcote, Auckland, practicing on Queen Street between 1909 and 1910. From 1911 until his death in 1948, he lived at 21 Masons Ave, Ponsonby. For about a decade leading up to 1930, he operated as Price Photo Co from a studio at 300 Ponsonby Road. Early postcards bore the imprint “The W.A.P. Colour Photographic Series, Wanganui Photo Co NZ”, which evolved to “Wanganui Photo Co, Northcote, Auckland, NZ”, and ultimately to “W.A. Price Photo Co”.
Photographic negatives of the images were donated to the library by Price’s widow Edith who died in 1966.
Krippner notified the library of her discovery so that it might update its records.
“Spotting false information or misused eruption images is commonplace today, unfortunately. It’s not often I find something so old.”
Photographic curator Louise Garrett was not surprised to learn the copy negatives produced by the photographic studio had been manipulated as the process had been around since the invention of photography.
“The photographer probably thought he needed to make it more interesting,” she said. “We will add Janine’s discovery to the records.”
Mount Ngāuruhoe supposedly in eruption, 1909. Alexander Turnbull Library.
