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Franz Barta
(1907-1985), PhotographerArtist of 1 portrait
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Maria Barta
15 December 2019, 04:45
Franz Barta was my father. He was born in 1907 in Budapest, Hungary (part of the Austro-Hungarian empire) and died in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1985. However, his family moved to Vienna in 1911 and he lived there until he emigrated in 1938 to New Zealand. He was already a professional photographer but it was as a professional mountain guide that he emigrated to New Zealand, and his fiancēe, Hedy, followed in 1939. In 1944 he purchased an existing photographic business in Dunedin and soon made his name, especially in portraiture. He was instrumental in setting up a professional photographers' association in the early 1950s, which held annual conferences. The association still exists in a slightly different format. Franz (also his "trade" name as Franz Studio) and with his iconic signature, gained an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society. He retired in 1975. He left behind a considerable body of work which is held in the archival library, the Hocken Library, Dunedin, and at Te Papa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington. Franz and Hedy had a long friendship with Karl and Hennie (his wife), as Karl had gained a lecturing position at the university in Christchurch in the late 1930s and he often visited Dunedin and the well-established Philosophy department at the University of Otago. Much later the Bartas visited the Poppers when they lived in Sussex, UK. Franz's photograph is of Karl as an older man (and it is used, without a byline, in the Wikipedia reference). Contributed by Maria Barta, New Zealand, December, 2019