Tauranga Photographers: Vyvian Tindall and "Studio Vivian"

Photographed by Studio Vivian, Tauranga, c. 1962
Private collection

By 1963, when Tauranga became a city, the population of the urban area had almost reached 25,000. It had trebled since the end of the war, was still growing rapidly, was therefore able to support a vibrant range of services, including a burgeoning professional photography scene.  Apart from the stalwarts - Renwood Studios, Carters Photo Service, Bay of Plenty Photo Laboratories, the Tauranga Photo News and Candid Camera Craft - there were several smaller businesses including Studio Vivian, which first appeared under the "Portrait Photographer" heading in phone directory listings in 1964.

Extract from Tauranga Telephone Directory, 1964

The proprietor of the Studio Vivian was Vyvian Tindall (note the difference in spelling), who operated out of her home on Cameron Road. Although the electoral roll for 1963 shows both her and her husband William Ernest Tindall, whom she had married in 1956, as photographers, records after 1966 suggest that she later ran the business on her own. Her husband otherwise worked as a fitter and turner. Initially settling in Pillans Road, Otumoetai after her marriage, she had two daughters and they had moved to Cameron Road by 1963.

Family at The Elms, c. 1969
Photographed by Studio Vivian, Tauranga
Private collection

Apart from the bare bones of her career laid out in the impersonal lists of public records, little further information about her career has been uncovered. Most of her photographs no doubt lie in personal and family collections, from one of which the two images above are derived. Julie Green recalls:

My memories of Vivian Tindall are of an elegant tallish blonde (with the sixties eye make-up) and her two daughters, the younger of whom was in my class at school. They lived on the same side of Cameron Road as Brain Watkins House, but about two blocks towards the domain. The house was pale stucco, split-level. The family lived upstairs and the studio/workroom was in the basement.  There seemed to be long theatre-type curtains in the studio and I remember watching a young woman employee sitting in good light by the north window colouring and creating white lines for what may have been a fence. I was horrified she was scratching the image with a craft knife.

Charlie Haua at the Blacksmith’s Shop, Tauranga Historic Village, 1978
Photograph by Studio Vivian, Tauranga
Collection and courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 02-095

That she did outside commissions as well as within the confines of a studio environment is evidenced by the images of Charlie Haua working in his Blacksmithy at the Historic Village in 1978. Although she appears to have maintained a relatively low profile, phone directory listings for Studio Vivian Home Portraits continued to appear regularly at the same address until 1979. By 1981, although still working as a photographer, Vyvian Tindall had moved to Remuera, Auckland.

Ted Morris, c.1976
Photograph by Studio Vivian, Tauranga
Collection and courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 02-098

References

The New Zealand Official Year-Book, 1964, Department of Statistics, Wellington, https://www3.stats.govt.nz/New_Zealand_Official_Yearbooks/1964/NZOYB_1964.html

1964 Telephone Directory, courtesy of John and Julie Green

Electoral Rolls and Telephone Directories, 1954-1982, Nga Wahi Rangahau, Tauranga City Library

Email correspondence with Julie Green, 21 May 2022