Name Daniel Mundy | Died November 30, 1881 | |
Daniel Louis Mundy was a notable New Zealand photographer. Not much is known about Mundy's early life in England apart from that he married Louisa Rust in Hackney, London in 1856. They arrived in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1864 and purchased William Meluish's photographic business. In 1865 he moved to Christchurch.
It was in Christchurch where Mundy photographed Moa skeletons under the commission of Julius von Haast for the Canterbury Museum. These photographs were then reprinted for the Illustrated London News. In 1867 he was commissioned to photograph a portrait of Governor George Grey.
Mundy was originally a portrait photographer but in 1869 he travelled New Zealand taking views and selling prints of the New Zealand landscape.
In 1873, the New Zealand Government used some of these prints for the Vienna Exhibition and in 1875 he published a book called Rotomahana - The Boiling Spring of NZ. Also that year, Mundy's only child was born in Port Chalmers.
In 1874, Mundy moved to England to further his career prospects. He gave a talk to the Photographic Society of Great Britain about his experiences of taking pictures around New Zealand. This seminar became the basis of an article which Mundy had published in the British publication Photographic News.
In 1875, Mundy relocated to Australia where he died in 1881.