This photo shows Foxton Beach Surf Lifesaving Club volunteers Holly, Kelsey and Thomas conducting a rescue drill just beyond the waves at Foxton Beach. In another IRB was Jacob Brookie, a photographer using a vintage 1950s Agfa Silette camera. A freak wave had already wet the lens of the Silette, and the lens was a bit damp despite Jacob’s best efforts which explains the slight lack of focus in this image!

The 2023/2024 Foxton Beach swimming season was plagued by bluebottle jellies- lifeguards on the observation deck saw huge ‘mats’ of them out at sea. There were a few painful stings felt by swimmers onshore, but no emergencies as a result. 

This photo was taken as part of a series about Foxton’s volunteers, and many photos were published in the Horowhenua Chronicle.   

Is it ironic that an ad for make-up is marred by blemishes? This slide may just have been left by the projector's heat for too long! However, there's enough writing left untouched to know that it was made for the Oxford Pharmacy. An old newspaper ad displays the pharmacy on Oxford Street in 1981 as one of six pharmacies in Levin.

This slide looks to be a bit older than this though. An 'Oxford Pharmacy' was in the New Zealand Register of Pharmacies in 1960, albeit on a different end of Oxford Street.

The 'Chronicle' referred to in the slide was the local newspaper, known at various points as the 'Levin Chronicle', 'Daily Chronicle' and 'Horowhenua Daily Chronicle". At the time the slide was made the paper was published six days a week and was a paid newspaper. In 2008 it was renamed the 'Horowhenua Chronicle' and became a free community newspaper which is still being published at the time of writing (September 2023). 

Taken with an East German Reflekta Camera.  The lens on this camera had some haze due to it's age and this has created a 'soft focus' look. 

Taken with the East German Reflekta camera. 

This image was taken with a 1956 Lipca Rollop Automatic- One of Jacob's personal cameras. When using an untested MAVtech camera for a story Jacob always brings along a proven vintage camera as a backup! 

Foxton photographer and MAVtech volunteer Jacob Brookie uses vintage cameras from the museum's collection to take photographs of local volunteers in the community. The results are published in the Horowhenua Chronicle.

This article, the first in the series, looks at the work of the Wildlife Foxton Trust. It was published in the Horowhenua Chronicle on the 23rd of June, 2023. Some of the photos here differ to those in the print article- but all were taken on the same day and with the same cameras.