John Kinder was an Anglican clergyman, teacher, artist and photographer. Kinder was born in London in 1819, the oldest surviving child of a wealthy merchant and his second wife. As a clergyman Kinder took services at various churches, including St Barnabas's in Mechanics Bay, St Andrew's in Epsom and St Mark's in Remuera. During the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s he was chaplain to the British forces.

Although he took up painting and photography as hobbies, it is these that now appear to be his greatest achievements. During his lifetime his work was shown publicly on only two occasions: in 1871 and 1873 at the first two exhibitions of the Auckland Society of Artists, of which Kinder was a founding member...