Henry Winkelmann

Henry Winkelmann (26 September 1860 – 5 July 1931) was a New Zealand photographer. Winkelmann's photographs covered a wide range of topics, but he is best known for his yachting photographs.

Early years 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. 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.

Photography business

Winkelmann established his photography business in August 1901 at 31b Victoria Arcade, corner of Queen Street and Shortland Street in Auckland, with his work regularly being published in New Zealand and overseas publications, including being a contracted photojournalist for the Auckland Weekly News and the New Zealand Graphic (the latter of whom had been publishing his images since 1896.). A series of Winkelmann yacht photographs were later used as cigarette cards for Golden Floss and Blue Floss between 1923 and 1925. Winkelmann was an early adopter of the telephoto lens, using this to photograph cityscapes of Auckland in the 1900s. and in 1908 won the Auckland Weekly News photography competition. This was followed by an unsuccessful venture to photograph the Solar eclipse of May 9, 1910 at Port Davey, Tasmania which was hampered by rain, and the 1911 expedition to Vavaʻu to observe the Solar eclipse of April 28, 1911.

Later life

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. He spent his retirement in Swanson and Ponsonby.

New Zealand photography historian William Main cites Winkelmann as one of Auckland's most gifted pioneer photographers, highlighting his skill in marine photography. Much of Winkelmann's marine photography was taken from moving decks of vessels, or by holding onto the swaying masts of vessels.

In his will he left his collection of photographs and Glass-plate negatives were left to the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and his land to his nephew Eric Fox. In 1972, Fox gifted to the Auckland Museum more of Winkelmann's negatives, a large number of lantern slides, two photo albums, as well as a large number of original prints. To mark the 2003 America's Cup held in Auckland, an exhibition was held at Auckland War Memorial Museum over Summer 2002-2003 entitled On the Water, which featured Winkelmann's images of yachts and maritime racing.

Winkelmann's glass-plate negatives stored at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and Auckland Libraries were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao register in 2023.

Personal life 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.

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