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Last Modified: 21 September 2011
Notable collections
Leo Morel Streetscape
Leo Morel Streetscape c1949
Leo Morel was born at sea, grew up in New Zealand, and had an interest in photography from the age of eleven. He studied art in the USA, then lived in the Cook Islands where he had been a school teacher for three years, worked for a trading company, took over a plantation and volunteered for service when WWII broke out. After the war he found his plantation overgrown so he returned to New Zealand, first to Auckland, then in 1947 to Upper Hutt where he set up a studio at 20 Wilson Street, his telephone number was 311m. His particular interest lay in news and child photography. In 1950 Leo was appointed as one of the United Nations official photographers. His first assignment had been to cover the recruiting, training and departure of New Zealand's force to Korea. Leo had hand-colouring of his black and white photographs done by Miss Jean Rabbitt (later Mrs Penman) during the weekends. Local memory has it that he left Upper Hutt to live on the West Coast c. 1953, where he married. A photo from the time states his business address in Westport was 142 Palmerston Street and is dated December 26 1953. One local photographer remembers him working as a photographer in Westport, 1956-1958. When enquiries were made in 1999, no information about Leo Morel could be found at the Alexander Turnbull Library or the New Zealand Centre for Photography. Leo Morel has become most known in Upper Hutt for his 'Streetscape' dated to c. 1949. He took photographs of all the shop fronts and sections along Main Street between Pine Avenue and Logan Street.
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