Donald J. McKay collection
The Donald J. McKay photographic collection was donated by the photographer in 2017 to Akaroa Museum and consists of about 40,000 individual negative frames.
Image credit: Keith Collins, house party. AM-B21-frame-5
Donald John McKay (b.1934) grew up on the family farm in Le Bons Bay, Banks Peninsula.
He began photographing when he went away to high school in Christchurch and joined the camera club. After leaving Christchurch Boys High in 1949 he returned home and launched into his photographic career. Le Bons Bay was his home until mid-1961 when he took a job as a medical photographer at Burwood Hospital.
During this period, 1949-1961, Don was the Peninsula’s resident photographer, living at Le Bons Bay, doing a variety of jobs, and part of the community he grew up in. This shows through in the rich social documentary value of the photographs. Don had insider status and the trust of the community. The trust and knowledge of the local community shows in the engagement between subject and camera in his portraits, and the candid pictures he was able to capture at social occasions.
© Akaroa Museum
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