Stewart has a well-established pedigree as a New Zealand journalist, photographer and author.
His forte has long been the history of New Zealand's trams, cable cars, buses and trains which dominate his body of work.
His first portrait of Dunedin was published 60 years ago. His enthusiasm for recording the New Zealand-wide transport system that was to largely disappear in the early 1950s created a lasting and detailed photographic record. So, too, did his collection of early New Zealand postcards.
This book has been prepared against such a context, because the author's photographic inclination has always been toward transport, and the backgrounds to his subjects were largely incidental. With the passage of time his portfolio allows us to view our recent past and experience the patina of the 1950s.
He has recently refocused on the locations of his earlier works, and for comparison, many of the new pictures included here feature modern buses. These photographs and postcards present an opportunity to compare locations at the turn of the 20th century and 50 years later, as well as the present day.
Because of its influence, Dunedin: A Portrait of Today and Yesterday rarely strays from the straight and narrow, and is drawn on a limited palette that falls short of its subject's potential. At 64 pages it is disappointing value and joins a plethora of pictorial booklets of recent times. One cannot help but draw the conclusion it was designed to serve as a souvenir.
- Richard Stedman is a Dunedin journalist.
