Author(s): Paul Campbell

New Zealand

Tudor Collins was a noted photographer, particularly in Northland - a familiar name to many in the decades to 19770. Collins is described not just as a cameraman but also, at various times, as a sailor, bushman, businessman, entrepreneur, reaveller and farmer. And when there was time, a bon vivant. The book demonstrates that the achievenment and significance of Tudor Washington Collins have been under-rated. The evidence is here in masterful, compelling photographs of kauri bush and all aspects of the industry that came to surround it. "Kauri Cameraman" is a view of an important piece of our history and a depiction of this part of Collins' life and work in earlier times in Northland, Auckland and Coromandel during the felling, harvesting, transport and millling of untold numbers of giant kauri trees. Before the intensive commercial harvesting of kauri forests began in the mid-1800s there were stands of kauri covering about 1.2 million hectares. Over some 100 years this area was reduced by 90%. The photographs in this book are not the work of a man that wandered in the bush with a camera in his spare time. Collins lived and worked this hard physical life with his workmates and friends. He knew how to fell the trees, or climb them to collect gum. Also the hauling of the logs with bullocks through mud or along bush railways, the building of dams holding back the water which could then be released to carry the massive logs down to there they could be better handled and transported. He also photographed how these hard, fit men of the bush lived, cooked, ate and dealt with their brief periods of spare time. His photographs are much more than a record of work in a dangerous industry; they also bear the imprint of Collins' clear admiration for the forest and its trees.