Pictures of a long-lost mining life

Through the Eyes of a Miner: the Photography of Joseph Divis, explores the Czech miner and photographer’s impressions of life in a New Zealand mining town in the first part of the 20th century.

He documented the life of people above and underground in Blackball, Waiuta and Waihi between 1909 and 1935.

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Really cool old photos, respect to those old timers

Here is a further collection of Joe Divis’ pictures.

It seems the man was even more of a journalist then anyone has ever written him to be, his pictures paint quite the record of the mining techniques and practices of the age, as well as the life and lifestyles of that era of miners.
Interesting to see prospectors still under canvas tents with improvised timber chimneys, the kind which gave the Wakamarina settlement of Canvastown it’s name a couple of generations previous in 1864!! :astonished: