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About Kahu Publishing - a brief history
Kahu Publishing was set up in 1993 by owner/photographer Glen Coates as a vehicle for publishing his panoramic photographs. Based in Christchurch New Zealand, the business has grown to supply its products to over 500 retail outlets around New Zealand.
Panoramic postcards
Our fold-out panoramic cards are our biggest selling item. Since creating the first card in 1993 improvements in design and quality have been ongoing. The cards now combine picture, map and information into a unique, sealable, postcard package which can be found on the shelves of many tourist outlets around New Zealand. Innovation has been a key to the growth in sales. In 2002 the card design was modified from three folds to two, with a glue-strip to seal the cards instead of an envelope. Since 2003 Staccato screening has been used in the printing process, the finer resolution giving our printed images a more photographic quality. Also in 2003 Glen began taking panoramas from helicopter making it possible to photograph many more places around the country. The list of titles continues to grow each year.
Murals
In 1995 Kahu Publishing began reproducing Glen's panoramas as stunning wall-size murals printed on a large ink-jet printer (at Microfilm & Digital Print). The demand for these large laminated prints has grown over the years, many customers having them framed or block-mounted for large homes or commercial buildings. Some have been printed at 7 metres in length.
Panoramic posters
In 2004 Kahu Publishing began its panoramic poster series as an affordable alternative to the smaller murals. At 1000mm in length these offset-printed posters are still large enough to have impact on a wall. The Staccato screen does great just justice to the detail in our high-resolution photographs.
Panoramic bookmarks
In 2008 Kahu Publishing began its panoramic bookmark series as an affordable alternative to the postcards. At 200mm by 50mm with laminated on both sides, these bookmarks are cut above the rest.
The origin and significance of "Kahu"
Glen says 'In 1993, the year our company was registered, I was living with my family in Kahu Road, Christchurch. When we learned that "Kahu" was Maori for the Australasian Harrier Hawk we quickly took "Kahu" as a distinctive name, symbol and logo for our publishing business. A bird that can soar effortlessly on rising air was an inspiring symbol, and the superb vision that enables a hawk to see detail below from high in the sky had a certain parallel with our own quest to seek high ground and capture panoramic views on film in detail. Many years later when we took to the air with our cameras in a helicopter the symbolism was even more remarkable.'
From photographer Glen Coates
My interest in photography began in secondary school days when my father let me use his Zeis camera. After learning how to develop films and make enlargements in the school darkroom it wasn't long before I was doing huge black and white enlargements at home. I loved the detail captured on 120 film and found I could project my enlarger down the length of the garage onto photographic paper pinned up on the end wall. I remember the excitement of spreading the developer over huge sheets of photographic paper with my hands and seeing the image magically appear under the safety light.
This early interest in photography was put aside for nearly 30 years when I went to university and pursued a career in geology. In my work with the DSIR I began writing and designing some small information brochures and, as fate would have it, this was how I began to learn about the publishing industry.
A few years later I decided to try out my ideas about panoramic photography. First I bought a second-hand medium-format camera and by trial and error I taught myself how to photograph landscapes. Then I put together my first panoramic postcard showing the view across the Canterbury Plains, with the Southern Alps on the horizon. Thus in 1993 Kahu Publishing was born and within a few years I had numerous panoramic cards selling around the South Island. These were very exciting times, putting my creativity to work and watching Kahu Publishing take flight. Wall-size prints of my panoramas were the next thrilling innovation - these huge ink-jet prints had taken me full circle back to the enlargements I did when I was at school.
At this time geology was still part of my life and the photography/publishing was still not a full-time business. For a few years I worked on a part-time contract for the new Hong Kong Museum of History, and I was also writing a book about the Southern Alps to be published by the Canterbury University Press. The book took many years to write but it became a great meeting ground for my skills in photography, geology and writing.
"The Rise and Fall of the Southern Alps" was a great success (see BOOKS). After it was published in 2002 I was able to concentrate full-time on my photography and growing Kahu Publishing. The new card design in 2003 was a great innovation, and then a foray into photography from a helicopter took things to a new level. More recently the new panoramic posters (using a Staccato screen) have proved an exciting and cost-effective way of reproducing my wide-angle shots of New Zealand's magnificent landscape.