School Photos by Thalia, Sophia and Evelyn.

At Gracefield School the earliest class photos we have on record are from 1939. They are pretty different from the 2000s!

Early school photos from our school

Many of the early photos from our school are not in colour, they are just in black and white. The girls often wore dresses, and cardigans and wool jerseys were popular. The boys wore a t-shirt and pants, and some people even wore a tie.

In many of the early school photos, they took the photos outside instead of inside the hall, which is what we do now.

Photos now

School photos look different now. There is colour now, not black and white like what they had in the old days, and the fashion choices are very different. There is a new photographer doing the photos at our school now and her name is Sue Allman.

Visit Sue’s website

We interviewed Sue Allman about what it was like taking photos for schools in the Wellington area.

She uses is a Canon camera, a white screen backdrop and light props. She likes to use a white background, as she wants to keep the same style as the family photos she takes in her studio.

Sue had a degree in Fashion Designing and went back later to study photography when she was working in London. She has organised shoots for magazines, and once she had her children, she couldn’t help herself organising photo shoots with them! Sue found people loved the style of her photos and so began her business taking photos of children, their families and their schools.

It was interesting for us to look at our old Gracefield school photos and see what it was like in a long time ago at our school, and to see our teachers and their crazy hairstyles and clothes they used to wear!

Photo from 1939.

Photo from 1939.

The 1960s and 2000s.

The 1960s and 2000s.

Our photos today.

Our photos today.