About Courtenay Studios
Contact: James Gilberd, [email protected] | 027 444 3899 | 04 382 9502 10am-3pm.
Location: 1st floor, 37 Courtenay Place, Wellington CBD James Gilberd has offered his studio for hire since 2005, and now has teamed up with Mark Beehre to provide this studio space for hire. "There is a need for this type of service, which is aimed at recently-graduated photography students and professional photographers who have smaller jobs or clients with tighter budgets." If we can't offer what you're looking for, we will gladly recommend other studios that have more to offer equipment- and space-wise.
Courtenay Studios has the benefit of being right in the CBD, in the the vibrant location of Courtenay Place, and street parking is easy most of the day as well. There are now 4 free 30-minute parallel parks right outside on Courtenay Place.) The room is that only one in the building that still has the original 1920 tongue & groove timber on walls and ceiling, and the ceiling slopes from 3.7m to a massive 4.5m, which offers great overhead space. [June, 2013] The paint is still drying as this website goes online, and we have to do a bit of work on the ancient floor, but we're really looking forward to shooting in the room - it has such a beautiful feel to it. It's use as a yoga and therapeutic massage centre for the last couple of decades has left it with some real positive energy. Although we have a bit more finishing work to do, the studio is now operational and available for hire, as of the second week of June, 2013. The next stage is to reinstate the darkroom, which will be used for black & white film processing and workshops. (We've done this now.) |
History: C.S. Boyer & E.T. Robson - Courtenay Studios 1920-1932
From 1920 to 1932, Boyer and Robson operated their photography business “Courtenay Studios” from this building, at the time known as the Ajax Building, before moving to premises further down Courtenay Place and later to Manners St. The display of photographs by Boyer & Robson currently showing in the studio was selected by Mark Beehre and James Gilberd from a large number of prints held at the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aoeteoroa. The high quality and range of images, including many action photographs, is testimony to Boyer & Robson's great photographic skills. That they were able to capture such images using the equipment of the time is remarkable. The Courtenay Studios room (and next door, Photospace Gallery's main room) were more recently occupied by O’Neill’s Photographics, from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. In 2013 Mark Beehre and James Gilberd reinstated the name Courtenay Studios and they continue the long photographic tradition of 37 Courtenay Place. |