Meet the Nimmos
Hi, we’re the Nimmos
We’re a father-and-daughter photography team based on the West Coast of New Zealand, with a gallery, store and studio in the heart of Greymouth.
Between us we photograph everything from wild West Coast landscapes and commercial work to weddings, newborn babies, families and the occasional thing that doesn’t fit neatly into any category.
Photography has been part of our family for a long time, and Nimmo Photography has changed names, buildings and shape quite a few times along the way.
From an upstairs studio to here
It all started with Stew working from an upstairs studio, photographing weddings, portraits and landscapes, and selling his photography cards under the name Cards to Keep.
Then came the first Stewart Nimmo Gallery, in Greymouth’s old Becks building.
The first Stewart Nimmo Gallery in the old Becks building.
Stew has always had a soft spot for old buildings and a habit of wanting to renovate and save them. Sadly, the Becks building is no longer standing, making the photographs we have of it that little bit more special now.
For a few years we expanded to a second gallery beside the Greymouth Railway Station, before eventually bringing everything back under one roof.
For a while there were two, our sister gallery beside the Greymouth Railway Station.
Another move took us to the corner of Mackay and Tainui Streets, along with a more modern gallery and another evolution of the Stewart Nimmo brand.
Another chapter of Stewart Nimmo Gallery.
Meanwhile, Lydia had been working alongside Stew since her high-school days, before beginning her own professional photography career in 2006.
By 2015, she’d been part of the business long enough, and established her own name as a photographer, that ‘Stewart Nimmo Photography’ didn’t really fit us anymore.
So we became Nimmo Photography, with a new name and a softer, more fluid identity that better represented the father-and-daughter business we’d become.
Really, the name was just catching up.
That change came with one more move, conveniently, just next door, into our current home at 102 Mackay Street.
Originally a bank and later The Smelting House café, today it’s our gallery, store, photography studio, photo lab, fine art printing and framing workshop.
Home today — Nimmo Gallery, 102 Mackay Street.
Stewart Nimmo
Landscape photographer, commercial photographer, printer, framer and professional potterer-about-er.
Stew is the landscape, commercial and pretty-much-everything-else side of Nimmo Photography, and the photographer behind the work you'll find covering the gallery walls.
The West Coast is home and probably always will be his favourite place to photograph, but his camera has travelled considerably further than our own backyard. His work ranges from big, unmistakably West Coast landscapes to quieter details, wild weather, old derelict buildings and whatever else happens to catch his eye along the way.
Stewart holds a Master of Photography with Distinction with the NZIPP, but he's probably much more comfortable talking to you about where a photograph was taken than telling you about the letters after his name.
When he's not out with a camera, you'll generally find him somewhere around the gallery, printing, helping Karl solve an unusual framing problem, working on something for one of the various community groups he's connected with, planning another photographic mission... or talking.
Actually, probably talking.
Stew loves a chat. If you happen to catch him in the gallery, there's a fairly good chance you'll leave knowing the story behind a photograph, what the weather was doing when he took it, and several other things you didn't technically ask about.
Lydia Nimmo
Portrait photographer, wedding photographer and occasional landscape interloper.
Lydia has been around the business since her high-school days, working alongside Stew from around 2003 before beginning her own professional photography career in 2006.
These days she’s the portrait, newborn and wedding side of the father-and-daughter equation, although commercial photography, events and the occasional travel or landscape photograph sneak into the mix too.
Her photography is relaxed, people-focused and very much about photographing real life rather than waiting for everyone to somehow become perfectly behaved and photogenic first.
Lydia holds a Master of Photography with the NZIPP, and outside of photography is Mum to three kids, from toddler through to almost-teen. So life is a fairly constant juggle of running a business, school things, small children, family life and attempting to remember which day everyone is supposed to be where.
When she's not behind the camera, she's usually somewhere behind the scenes of the business, coming up with another idea, or starting approximately twelve jobs at once.
For families, newborns, weddings and the rest of Lydia's portrait work, you'll find everything over at Nimmo Portraits →
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It takes more than two Nimmos
There are a few more people (or heroes) keeping everything moving behind the scenes.
Mel looks after much of our everyday photo printing and lab work and day to day running of the gallery. She came across with Network Photos when it became part of Nimmo in 2020 and is much happier hiding behind a printer than standing in front of one of our cameras.
And then there’s Karl, our on-site framer, who works alongside Stew turning photographs, artwork, jerseys, embroidery, memorabilia and all manner of slightly unusual things into something worthy of the wall.
Together we’re a small family business with a fairly broad definition of photography shop.
And we quite like it that way.