ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

Monday 8th June 1857  Page 8 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)
Wednesday 10th June 1857  Page 8 - Northern Times (Newcastle, NSW)

The Reverend J.R. Major M.A., of King's college, London, late Secretary of the Photographic Society, and editor of its journal, has been appointed to the head mastership of the Grammar School at Thetford, Norfolk.



Monday 20th July 1857  Page 1 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

SCHOOL OF ARTS LECTURE
On Tuesday evening next a Lecture will be delivered in the Hall of the Institution, by Frank Haes Esq., member of the Photographic Society of London, on Practical Photography. Mr. Haes will illustrate the collodion, the waxed paper and Talbotype processes. A large number of specimens will be exhibited. Some specimens will also be produced in the room by the agency of gas-light. Members will be admitted on the production of their cards of membership, and are entitled to introduce two ladies. The doors will be opened at 7pm, and the lecture will commence at 7.30pm precisely.



Saturday 29th August 1857  Page 7 - The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW)
Saturday 12th September 1857  Page 3 - The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW)

THE DISCOVERER OF THE COLLODION PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS
Her Majesty the Queen, having been informed that Mr. F. Scott Archer, the discoverer of the application of collodion to photography (a process which has superseded all others), had died, leaving a young family unprovided for, has been pleased to head a subscription by a gift of twenty guineas. The Photographic Society of London have followed with a grant of £50.



Monday 8th March 1858  Page 1 - Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, NSW)

The Photographic Society have opened their first session in their new rooms, Coventry-street, which will serve for meetings, and for their public exhibitions. The society flourishes, and so does their art. Black leather is now used for photographs; by what is called the "vitro heliographie progress", pictures are taken on slabs of porcelain; and the sun is now made to supersede the draughtsman in preparing wood block's for the engraver. The block is first wetted with a solution of alum and then dried; then with a camel hair brush is washed all over with a glue composed of soap, gelatine, and a solution of alum, which keeps the wood firm and free from damp. The surface for the image is then placed for a few minutes in a solution of chlorydrate of ammonia, and exposed to the nitrate, after which the negative is laid on, and watched till a satisfactory impression appears, and this having been fixed, the block is ready for the engraver. This power of reproducing the images of objects implies, as is obvious, the most desirable accuracy of representation. And besides these we hear of transparent enamel photographs, of which the picture, is preserved by enclosure between two plates of glass. Nothing shews better the popular appreciation of the photographic art than the success of the Architectural Photographic Association, which, set on foot last May, now numbers 600 members. As their name indicates, they occupy themselves with taking pictures of buildings, and at times, of engineering works, for which purpose the art is peculiarly valuable. What the Association have already accomplished may be seen in many prints shops: views of the principal public and private edifices from all parts of Europe, and now we are told there "is a certainty of the operations being extended into India, China, and other countries of Asia". Photography is used, too, by surgeons to preserve the history of a "case" by a series of pictures which show the course of the disease or the cure.



Wednesday 7th July 1858  Page 4 - The Goulburn Herald and County of Argyle Advertiser (NSW)
Wednesday 21st July 1858  Page 4 - Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal (NSW)
Thursday 22nd July 1858  Page 8 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

WONDERFUL DISCOVERY IN PHOTOGRAPHY
There is something to record of photography which can hardly be described as otherwise than wonderful. It is a discovery made by that skillful pioneer of photographic art, "Abel Niepce de Saint-Victor", some four or five months ago and now that there is no room to doubt, we give an outline of it. Marvelous as it may appear, light can actually be bottled up for use. Take an engraving which has been kept for some days in the dark; expose it to full sunshine - that is, isolate it - for fifteen minutes; lay it on sensitive paper in a dark place and at the end of twenty-four hours it will have left an impression of itself on the sensitive paper; the whites coming out as blacks. If isolated for a longer time, say an hour, till thoroughly saturated with sunlight, the image will appear much more distinct. Thus there seems to be no limit to the reproduction of engravings. Take a tin tube lined with white, let the sun shine into it for an hour, place it erect on sensitive paper, and it will give the impression of a ring, or reproduce the image of a small engraving and of a variety of objects at pleasure - feathers, figured glass, porcelain, for example. Take, moreover, a sheet of paper, which has been thoroughly exposed to the sun, seal it up hermetically in a dark tube, and the paper will retain the light so effectually, that after two weeks, perhaps longer, it may be used for taking photographs.

The Lord Chief Baron, President of the Photographic Society, in his recent anniversary address to the members, might well say of these facts, that "hardly anything can be more extraordinary".



Thursday 12th August 1858  Page 2 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

A few specimens of M. Niepce St. Victor's photographs have been presented to the Royal Society. The especial merit of the new process is that the pictures will not fade. In a communication to the Photographic Society, M. Niepce says: "Everything leads to the hope that pictures taken in this will be much more stable than the photographs taken by the present process; and that this new mode of printing positives, so very simple and rapid, is the sought for solution of the important problem of the absolute fixing of photographic pictures". Another result will probably be that all the operations of photography will come to be carried on in full daylight. It is now clear, from the French savant's discoveries, "that light communicates to certain substances which it has fallen upon, a real activity; or better, that certain bodies have the property of storing up light in a state of persistent activity". It is found that process is accelerated by the use of a heated metal plate; and we hear that an ingenious individual has exhibited to the Franklin Institute at Philadelphia copies of engravings taken by laying the engraving face downward on a prepared board and passing a hot iron over the back.



Monday 4th February 1861  Page 8 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

The light of DUROSCQ'S ELECTRIC LAMP has been successfully employed in photography by Mr. Malone, of the London Institution. His mode of operation is given in the Journal of the Photographic Society. The expense of the process on account of the powerful voltaic battery required, may possibly be reduced hereafter.



Thursday 10th September 1863  Page 5 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

A Composition - Photograph: Messrs. Freeman have on view, at their Gallery in George-street, a production of photographic art, that attracted considerable attention at the Exhibition of the Photographic Society in London in January last. The subject of the picture is "Bringing Home the May", a procession of females carrying branches of the newly-blown hawthorn; it is the work of Mr. B.P. Robinson, a painter of some celebrity in England. At first sight the picture would appear to have been photographed from an engraving; the figures, of which there are some seven or eight, being very skilfully and artistically grouped. We learn, however, that the picture is a composition-photograph; the different portions have been taken from life or nature and have been very harmoniously arranged. The labor of selecting and posing the various models, and of uniting the separate studies, must have been very great-scarcely less, probably, than that of an original composition ; and while very beautiful effects are produced, the picture has the rare merit of being necessarily true to nature in all the details. It is, we believe, the first large picture of the kind that has been composed mechanically, and it is well worthy of an inspection by those who take an interest in works of art.



Monday 22nd February 1864  Page 3 - Empire (Sydney, NSW)

WHO DISCOVERED PHOTOGRAPHY?
It has hitherto been considered a curious coincidence that the process of taking permanent photographic pictures was discovered simultaneously, in England and France, by Mr. Fox Talbot and M. Daguerre - the former producing his pictures on paper, the latter on silvered metal plates. Their results were made public in 1839, and were respectively called Talbotypes and Daguerrotypes. Prior to this date, many scientific men had diligently worked at the subject. The camera had been invented at least three hundred years before; and the influence of light on the salts of silver was certainly known as early as the sixteenth century. But those investigators who recorded results of their labors only chronicled a succession of failures in their endeavors to render permanent the pictures obtained; the latest confession of failure in this essential part of the process being that made by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1802.

At the meeting of the London Photographic Society, on Tuesday last, a large gathering of photographers assembled, to ascertain what foundation there might be for rumors which have been for some time afloat concerning the discovery of certain undoubted sun-pictures taken at the close of the last century, and the very existence of which up to the present time would afford sufficient evidence of their durability. The whole history of the curious circumstances connected with the discovery of these pictures was related by Mr. Smith, Curator of the Museum of Patents at South Kensington, to whom belongs the credit of rescuing from impending destruction the numerous specimens exhibited. With most praiseworthy industry he collected every scrap of evidence direct and corroborative, in order to determine the means by which the exhibited pictures were produced, the time when, and the person by whom, they were taken. The story of the finding of them may be briefly told, but nothing has yet been discovered as to how they were done. For purposes with his department, Mr. Smith had to visit the old house at Soho, near Birmingham where the renowned, engineering manufactory of Watt and Boulton was originally established. The works were about to be removed, and a clearing out of the house was being effected. It may be mentioned, en passant, that it was there the famous body called the Lunar Society, which included among its members the chief scientific men of the day, held their meetings on the night of every full moon; and the dismantling of the library disclosed traces which led the initiated to believe that these meetings had something of the nature of Freemason Lodges. It certainly seems reasonable to conjecture that many matters, scientific and otherwise, were discussed at the meetings of such eminent men other than are set down in the meager records of the transactions of the Lunar Society.

Matthew Boulton resided at Soho until his death, in 1809. His library and its contents appear to have remained undisturbed for half a century, when, in the course of clearing out, and whilst removing a vast collection of old documents, there were found a number of crumpled and folded sheets of paper with pictures on them of a most puzzling kind - so much so as to attract the attention of Mr. Smith, he not being either an artist or photographer, and, moreover, being fully occupied at the time with far different business. On smoothing out these pictures, they were found to consist of copies, on large sheets of very coarse foolscap paper, of certain well-known designs by Angelina Kauffmann - the porous water-marked paper being thickly coated with some varnish like substance, on the surface of which the picture had been produced. All the sheets found in the library, as well as others subsequently discovered, presented the same characters - a glossy surface with minute varnish like cracks, the drawing of the figures most elaborately finished, the lights and shades so fully rendered as to give much the effect of a mezzotint and an invariable reversal of the position of the figures, so that all the Nymphs and Cupids (Kauffmann's pet subjects) appeared to be left-handed. These paper pictures were sent to London, and submitted to the best authorities on the subjects of drawing and painting; and here the mystery about them began, for they were pronounced to have been produced by some process entirely different from anything previously seen, and certainly not to have been done by hand. This led to immediate search being made for any more of the pictures that might exist, and also to inquiries, among the oldest inhabitants, for any one who lived at Soho in the time of Boulton, and could supply any information about them.

In a broker's shop were found several more of the pictures, which had been bought from the house at Soho as waste paper. One of these represented a large figure picture by West, and was on two sheets of paper each about two feet by eighteen inches, intricately cut at the joining place so that the line of union might fall at the edge of a shadow, and not be perceived when the two halves were put together to form the complete picture. Further research at Soho also led to the discovery of a couple of silvered metal plates, each about the size of a sheet of note-paper, precisely resembling in appearance those used by Daguerre in the early days of photography. On each of these plates was a faint image of the house at Soho, so unmistakably taken from nature, and so evidently produced by the aid of light, that all experts of any authority at once pronounced them to be photographed pictures taken directly by means of a camera. Attached to these plates was a memorandum stating that they were sun-pictures representing the building prior to certain alterations made in 1791. Following out their search as to the means by which these pictures were produced, the investigators learnt that there had once been found a camera in Boulton's library, answering in description to the kind of instrument required for plates of this size. Unfortunately this had been given away, and great was the hunt to find some traces of its subsequent career. But the discovery of the recipient of the treasure did not much help matters, as he had subsequently lost it during a removal. So the search is still going on, and there are sanguine expectations that it may yet be found - possibly converted into a salt-box by some thrifty housewife. Not very long ago there was living an old man who had for many years been employed at Soho, and who related how the wise men used to come there at each full moon, and used to sit very late at night, and that he remembered Mr. Boulton and some of them once took a picture of the house, and had to go into a dark place during the process.

So far the evidence as to the metal plates, which, if substantiated, will go far to prove that the discoveries of Niepce and Daguerre were anticipated by Boulton. It may possibly prove more; for the resemblance between these plates and the early productions of Daguerre is really marvelous if only an accidental, and if no link be found to connect the two processes. But the further evidence already obtained as to the pictures on paper discovered at Soho presents quite a tangle of curious circumstances. From invoices and other office papers, all bearing date about the end of last century, it is evident that these pictures, however produced, were actually sold at Soho in large quantities, and at low prices. The demand for them was great and considerable pains appear to have been taken to prevent the method of their production becoming generally known. So there must exist a large number of them at the present time, scattered through various collections and portfolios. The glazy surface, the porous, rough, water-marked foolscap paper, bearing Whatman's impress and the reversed figures, will distinguish them; for their appearance on cursory examination very much resembles that of the common colored mezzotints which our grandsires so much affected.

It appears that Sir William Beatty painted Boulton's portrait about 1794, the picture, being subsequently exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was horrified on being shown a number of paper pictures similar to those recently discovered; and he got up a petition, signed by a number of artists, and presented either to or through the Lunar Society, entreating that the manufacture of these pictures might be stayed, as it would inevitably ruin the picture trade. A sort of foreman of Boulton's, named Edington, appears to have superintended the production of these pictures, if he did not actually discover the process by which the transfer to paper was done. Several of his letters are extant referring to the subsequent coloring which some of the pictures underwent; none of them, however, afford any clue as to the original method of their production. But a little later, and after the alarm was taken by the artists, we find a talk of granting Edington a Government pension. This fell through, because of a curious autograph letter of Matthew Boulton's which has been fortunately found. In this letter, officially addressed to the Minister, he claims for himself the discovery of the process on account of which Edginton's annuity had been contemplated; he intimates his knowledge that the grant was only intended to ensure the discontinuance of the process, suggests that he could arrange this in a much more certain way, and concludes his letter with a strong hint that he is open to be dealt with. Whatever ensued as the result of this letter, it seems very clear that the production of the pictures was thenceforward discontinued.

Here the evidence comes to an end so far as regards these curious paper pictures, and the silvered plates which the highest authorities refer to about the year 1791. In this same year, Thomas Wedgwood, son of the famous potter, was certainly at work on photography, as is shown by his bills and orders for apparatus and chemicals. At the meeting of the Royal Photographic Society there was exhibited, side by side with the above mentioned metal plates, a photograph of neatly laid breakfast table, taken upon paper by Wedgwood, and the information about it tended to the conclusion that it also was done in the year 1791. Thus far we have written the history of this curious discovery in accordance with the evidence laid before the Royal Photographic Society; but still there are many links wanting before it can be taken as proved that the pictures found at Soho were produced by photography. If it shall be shown that they were so produced, then it will also be established that at that time photographic feats were done which we cannot now a days accomplish. For it has been proved by chemical analysis that these pictures do not contain a trace of silver, and must therefore, if of photographic origin, have been produced by some process that has been lost to us. That an art promising such great results should have been suffered to die out, is in itself curious in these days of diffusion of knowledge; but still more remarkable is the double coincidence existing between the independently produced metal and paper photographs of Boulton and Wedgwood in 1791, and of Daguerre and Fox Talbot in 1839.



Monday 28th March 1864  Page 3 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)
Wednesday 4th May 1864  Page 3 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)
Tuesday 26th July 1864  Page 3 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

THE ALLEGED EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS
(From the London Review, January 16.)
For some months past photographers have been in a state of excitement about the alleged discovery, among the papers of the late Matthew Boulton, of a series of colored prints supposed to have been, produced by some process now unknown, and about two early specimens of pictures on silvered plates in a drawer in the library at Soho. Mr. Smith of the Museum of Patents, who met with these specimens, related their history to the Royal Photographic Society in November last, and read documents which he considered tended to prove the hypothesis that the pictures in his possession were produced by chemical or photographic agency at a date prior to 1791. A writer in the Society of Arts Journal, evidently acquainted with these pictures, considers the evidence produced does not justify the assumption that the daguerreotype are was known at Soho in 1791, and he endeavors to point out the fallacy of attributing the production of the paper prints to photographic agencies.

Mr. Smith states that the prints were produced by a method invented by Mr. Francis Egington about the year 1790, that he was taken by the hand by Mr. Boulton, who appeared to have undertaken the production of copies from any painting, on paper, copper, canvas, and other materials. The copies were made in dead colors, and in some cases more than one were employed. Thus produced, they were frequently finished as oil paintings, or water-color drawings, being passed into the hands of Mr. Barney to color. The sepia tone of some of the prints corresponds with that of the photographs now produced ; while the extreme delicacy of the surface from which the impression was taken has led to a belief that such an effect could only be the result of chemical agents acted upon by light. The basis of this opinion is that the impressions were taken on paper, the surface of which had been specially prepared, and after the lapse of nearly a century the prepared surface can be removed by friction, and entire impression obliterated, the image not having been absorbed into the substance of the paper, which is a hard, and not a soft printing paper. That they were frequently finished as paintings is quite intelligible, and the prints themselves interpret their mode of production. That they are not photographs the writer referred to believes, because the paper on which the impression is taken bears evidence of the use of a metal plate, a well-defined marginal line impressed during its passage through the press. And with reference to the method by which the minutely granulated surface was obtained, he believes any skillful aquatint engraver could produce a similar surface by simply laying the ground of his plate by means of a delicate solution of any of the gums or resins used in that process, the gradations from light to shadow being dependent upon the action of acid in biting it upon the surface of the plate. That the effect was so obtained he regards as evident from the flatness of the parts of the picture which have been stopped out, and are especially apparent in the foliage. With regard to the coloration of the prints, it was a common practice during the last century to print from mezzotints, aquatint, and chalk-engraved plates in several colors, and anyone who will carefully examine the Soho impressions may, he says, detect ample evidence of a compound process of printing with colored inks. The method of applying such inks was described by Mr. Robert Laurie in 1776, in the second volume of the Society of Arts Transactions.

This process of compound printing is still continued in a modified form, small rubbers being at present used for the broader surfaces in place of the old stump pencils. For finishing as a water-color drawing, it would be necessary to use a hard paper, or to prepare the surface by coating it with gum, albumen, or some of the well-known mediums. If as a water-color, albumen or gelatine would probably be the material, a water-color being used in printing from the plate; the two would then combine, but the color would not be absorbed into the paper; if the coating of gelatine were thick, it would in a century be likely to perish, and there would be no difficulty in rubbing off the impression from the paper. If for finishing as an oil picture, gelatine would not be used, as the two would not combine. If canvas were employed to print upon, no doubt oil-colors would be used. In the case of water-colors it was necessary to harden the surface of the paper, in order to prevent the colors applied by hand from running or spreading.



Thursday 28th July 1864  Page 1 - The Kiama Independent and Shoalhaven Advertiser (NSW)

TO THE INHABITANTS OF KIAMA
"SECURE THE SHADOW ERE THE SUBSTANCE FADE"
OUT-DOOR PHOTOGRAPHY

C.J. MORRIS
Professor of Photography, and Member of the Royal London Photographic Society, and late of the Stereoscope Company, Cheapside.

Respectfully informs the inhabitants of Sydney and Suburbs that he is now prepared to take Views of Residences, and Carte de Visite Portraits of Customers at their own houses. The number of applications continually made to C.J.M. has induced him to visit the different localities about Sydney with a splendid apparatus for that purpose. The advantages to be obtained by customers by this process are many; portraits of persons unable to leave their homes and of young children can be executed in the highest style of Photographic Art at prices the same as those charged in his rooms in Sydney. Views of the "House we live in" can be most beautifully photographed, with the members of the family artisticaIly grouped about, so to form a most beautiful and truthful picture.

Very erroneous conceptions are formed by our home friends of the style of our habitations in New South Wales, therefore nothing can be more pleasing to them than a well executed photograph of the pretty buildings to be found in the suburbs of Sydney. They will then see that they are not rude bark huts, but buildings out rivaling many of those at home.

Portraits of invalids, and young children especially, can be better photographed in the open air than in rooms; in fact, some of the most pleasing infantile pictures are those taken out of doors.

GRAVE STONES
NOTICE: Mr. Morris's stay in Kiama can be for few days only.
Photographs of grave stones in memory of the departed can be most beautifully executed. C.J. Morris, has made this department of the art his most special study, and the number of negatives taken by him, both for the album and portfolio exceeds any other establishment.

C.J. Morris, most respectfully solicits, attention of the public to the above, and would respectfully intimate that while he is visiting any neighborhood the more patronage he receives the less the charges will be.

Letters attended to: Steam Packet Inn, Kiama. C.J. MORRIS, Town Rooms, Pitt-street Sydney.

Where Portraits in the very highest style of art can be seen.
NOTICE: Mr. Morris's stay in Kiama can be for few days only.



Wednesday 26th April 1865  Page 5 - Empire (Sydney, NSW)
Thursday 4th May 1865  Page 2 - The Tumut and Adelong Times (NSW)
Wednesday 14th June 1865  Page 5 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)
Thursday 13th July 1865  Page 2 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

THE LORD CHIEF BARON ON PHOTOGRAPHY
At the anniversary meeting of the Photographic Society, under the president-ship of the Lord Chief Baron, the noble and learned chairman congratulated the assembly upon the progress of the beautiful and interesting art of photography, not alone in portraiture, but in other and in all directions. It was becoming more and more appreciated, and under the skillful guidance of its leading professors was daily achieving new wonders. "It is perfectly well known", said the Baron, "that when you dissect and separate by means of a prism the rays of the sun, you get at the extreme end, where the red rays are, rays which are not visible, at least not to our eyes, but which apparently contain the heat; and at the other end, where the violet rays are you get the actinic rays, which are the source of the photographic power, but which are not visible to our eyes. They produce light and shade, and sometimes by accident, apparently, they produce color; but they are invisible to the human eye. It very likely may be that there are creatures to whom these rays are as visible as those we see, it being perfectly well known that at certain periods of life the human ear becomes insensible to the sound of the cricket, or the extremely shrill note of the bat ; and as we find that there are sounds audible to some ears which are not so to others, it naturally leads to the conclusion that if there are certain parts of the sun's rays which are invisible to some eyes, they may be visible to others, and may be performing operations upon the senses of other creatures to which we are not open. But what I was about to remark, was the extraordinary effect of the diligence and zeal, and the powerful battery (if I may so call it) of apparatus which Mr. De La Rue has brought into the field, for the purpose of discovering the structure of the sun. And it is now apparently well known that the sun is probably more unequal in its surface than the moon is, and that by proper arrangements of apparatus you can discover these inequalities. It was first discovered, I believe (after astonishing the philosophical world for some time, no one being able correctly to understand what it meant), during an eclipse of the sun, when the eye is enabled to see that which is otherwise concealed. It was then ascertained that there were extensions upon the surface of the sun, the effect of which no one could judge of at that time, but which now turns out to be undoubtedly projections in the nature of mountains. And Mr. De La Rue (as this is purely a photographic discovery) has been enabled by photography to obtain pictures of that which the human eye cannot see, but which the eye of photography does see. In other words, the rays which produce no effect upon the human eye will pass through the excessive light which covers the surface of the sun, and make an impress upon a proper paper so as to give you a picture of the sun when shining in his full strength. This is one of the matters which, I own, I have been watching for and expecting ; but I expect much more. I own that I look forward to the period when photography and its connection with the arts and chemistry will be the means of discovering a variety of matters which at present are either in a state of great obscurity or else almost entirely unknown.



Saturday 26th July 1879  Page 6 - The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW)
Saturday 29th November 1879  Page 930 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES ON SILKS
One of the silk manufacturing firms of Lyons, France, is introducing a new industry, the production of photographic impressions on stuffs. They sent to a recent meeting of the Photographic Society several pieces of silk, with a variety of photographic pictures printed thereon, including, among others, a number of large medallions representing pictures of the old masters. The length of the specimens thus exhibited is stated as being no less than 131 feet. The process by which they are produced is not given, but it is believed that the prints are made with salts of silver. Whether such is the case or not, this application of photography, which ever since the discovery of art has been sought after, and made the object of more or less successful experiments, would now seem to have been realized.



Saturday 19th November 1892  Page 9 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

The annual exhibition of the Photographic Society of Great Britain opened recently at Pall Mall. There was a soiree, when visitors who were mere laymen were astounded by the inspection of a photograph of Mont Blanc taken at a distance of 56 miles. Dallmeyer's tele-photographic lens was used, smallest stop, extension of camera 60in, with 7 minute exposure, at 6.15pm, 27th August, in windy weather. The success of Mr. F. Boissonnas experiment with the telescopic camera is unquestionable and opens up many interesting possibilities.






Friday 7th December 1894  Page 2 - The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania)

HIGH-CLASS PHOTOGRAPHY
At Hodgman and McCreary's chambers, Macquarie-street, Mr. H.J. Elliott, of the firm of Elliott and Sons, Barnet, Hertfordshire, is showing some superb specimens of photography. One is a carbon enlargement entitled "Break, Break, Break", and is intended to illustrate the poem by Tennyson, commencing with those words. The picture is 48in. x 36in. It is an exquisite study of the surf breaking on a craggy coast. The water appears to be moving, so true is it to nature. The same subject exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society's Exhibition gained for the firm a gold medal. There is also a noble picture of the west front of Exeter Cathedral, which is an enlargement, 48in. x 36in., from a quarter plate taken in a hand camera. The statuettes which fill the countless niches around the venerable doorway stand out with remarkable distinctness. Another picture shows a yacht race, with one vessel stern on, in the immediate foreground. This is produced in three colors, a laborious process, but nevertheless attainable. The effect is very striking. There are many other works, especially portraits, executed in various processes and different tints. Several sporting pictures, all taken instantaneously, are beautifully produced. A number of exquisite landscapes and marine studies are shown from the famous Aberdeen studios of Messrs. Wilson, where the negatives were developed by Mr. W. Beattie, of this city. The whole of the pictures have been produced with materials prepared by Messrs. Elliott & Sons. The principal plates used being those of the "Barnet" and "Rocket" type.



Saturday 26th January 1895  Page 4 - Warwick Argus (Queensland)

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
In his recent Presidential address to the Royal Photographic Society, Sir Henry Trueman-Wood summed up very concisely the various services which photography had rendered to science. First comes its marvelous association with the telescope and the spectroscope, which has placed modern astronomy upon quite a new basis. Next, its work as a recorder of scientific observations. Then we learn that the meteorologist has by the aid of photography been enabled to study the form and nature of clouds, and the shape and character of the lightning flash. The zoologist has been enabled to trace the real character of animal motion. The microscopist has for a long time relied upon the camera as the only accurate means of reproducing the forms of organisms too small for the unaided eye to see ; while the physicist has by photographic methods been enabled to investigate phenomena in which changes occur too rapidly for the eye to detect. Photography is also extensively used in anthropology, geology, geography, and archeology; and it has other applications which are comprised in the remark, that 'whenever the observer of natural phenomena requires to make an accurate record of his observations, photography supplies the means'.



Saturday 29th February 1896  Page 5 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)
Saturday 7th March 1896
Page 489 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)
Page 4 - Warwick Argus (Queensland)
Tuesday 17th March 1896  Page 3 - Bunbury Herald (Western Australia)

PHOTOGRAPHING THE INVISIBLE
SOME STRIKING EXPERIMENTS
The Berlin correspondent of the Daily News on 20th January had the opportunity of attending some experiments in the Rontgen system of photography, and describes the results in an interesting despatch. The experiments, he says took place in the "Urania", an institution which has for its object to make the people acquainted with all forms of progress, inventions and new discoveries in natural Philosophy and the related sciences. Dr. Spiess, the experimentalist of the Urania, has, from the moment that Professor Rotgen's discovery became known, placed his ability at its service, and he has succeeded in producing photographs which have turned out better than even those of the discoverer himself. After a brief but very clear lecture about the basis of Professor Rontgen's discovery, and the differences between the "x" rays and the known cathodic rays produced in Crookes's tubes, Dr. Spiess passed on to the experiments. He showed that the "x" rays passed through wood, aluminum and other solids, penetrating more easily, however, bodies of light specific gravity than substances of greater density. They pass through wood, for instance, more easily than through glass Dr. Spiess took it purse, put a key and some coins into it, wrapped up the whole in black paper and laid it on a photographic plate. In order to show the great penetrating power of the rays, he laid on the top of the wrapped-up purse a board two fingers in thickness. He then exposed the whole to the rays electrically produced in the Rontgen tubes. After about 15 minutes, which were occupied with various very interesting demonstrations, Dr Spiess took out the plate, developed it, and had it thrown by limelight on to a white curtain. With the greatest clearness one now saw the key and the coins, while even the outlines of the purse were scarcely seen. Among other photographs shown was a very interesting one representing the hand of a servant belonging to the institution. This man years ago ran into his hand a piece of glass, which could not be extracted, and always penetrated deeper. The photograph of the skeleton of the hand produced by Professor Rontgen's method showed this piece of glass quite distinctly. Another interesting photograph was the following. Dr. Spiess took a box, the sides of which were held together by screws, only the heads of them, of course, being visible to the human eye, the other part being inside the wood. In this box he laid a watch chain, and then exposed the whole to the "x" rays. The photograph produced showed the chain, the whole length of all the screws, but not a trace of the wood. Another photograph of a hand showed clearly a broken bone in one of the fingers. Very interesting, also, was the reproduction of a photograph made by Professor Rontgen of a large metal plate. It appeared that the plate had been broken in different places, then welded together, and so smoothed over that one saw nothing of the joins. The Rontgen Rays brought the fracture to light quite distinctly. Dr. Spiess warned his audience against premature optimism as regards the practical employment of Professor Rontgen's discovery.

In Vienna on 21st January Professor Rontgen's discovery of photography by means of invisible radiations of light was put to practical use by Professor Mosetig, whose experiments on two patients on whom operations were to be performed were attended with complete success. The photographic pictures taken showed with the greatest clearness and precision the injuries caused by a revolver shot in the left hand of a man, and the position of the small projectile. In the other case, that of a girl, the position and nature of a malformation in the left foot were ascertained. The experiments are regarded as affording a means of determining the exact spot where an operation may be necessary.

At a meeting of the Royal Photographic Society on 21st January, Mr. T. Bolas F.I.C., F.C.S., in the chair, Mr. J.W. Gifford, of Chard, exhibited some results which he had obtained in photographing the skeleton of the human hand by the invisible rays of a Crooks radiant matter tube and detailed various methods of working. Mr. Gifford's results remained on view to the general public at the society's room, 12 Hanover-square.

Professor Paul Czermark, of Graz, has (the Daily News Vienna correspondent says) succeeded in photographing a living skull without its fleshy integument by means of Professor Rontgen's "x" rays. An editor of the Grazer Tagblatt, eager to observe the process, offered to have his skull "taken". But when he saw the result he absolutely refused to have the picture reproduced or even shown to anyone except men of science. He is reported not to have slept a wink since he saw his own "death's-head".

On the subject of Professor Rontgen's discovery a representative of the Westminster Gazette, who has been making further inquiries, writes as follows:- Sir Benjamin Richardson knows something about every thing therefore one turned to him naturally for information on such a subject. And the result was what might have been expected. The diaphanous nature of human tissue has been the subject of special study on the part of Sir Benjamin for years. Indeed, it is matter almost for consideration whether he may not claim to have anticipated Professor Rontgen's discovery by 20 years or so. For as long ago as 1868 a paper was read by him before the British Association at Norwich, "On the Transmission of Light through Animal Bodies", a quotation or two from the summary of which published at the time will be read with interest in the light of Dr Rontgen's later researches. Thus we find in the published "Transactions" of the association: "The author exhibited a lamp which he had constructed for transmitting light through the structures of the animal body. He believed the first idea that such transmission could be effected was given in Priestley's work on Electricity. That great experimentalist, the Shakespeare of physical science, had observed, on passing a discharge of a Leyden battery through his finger that the structure seemed to present luminosity, but the operation was extremely painful the author had repeated this experiment with similar results. In the human subject, especially in the young, having fragile tissues, the thinner parts of the body could be distinctly rendered transparent, and in a child the bones under a somewhat subdued light could be seen in the arm and wrist. A fracture in a bone could, in fact, be easily made out, or growth from bone in these parts. In a thin young subject the movements and outline of the heart could also be faintly seen in the chest, but the light he had as yet employed had not been sufficiently powerful to render this demonstration all that he could desire. It would be possible, lastly, to see through some diseased structure, so as to ascertain whether, within a cavity, there was a fluid or a solid body. The structure the most diaphanous was the skin after that, and singularly enough, bone then thick membranes; next thin, superficial muscle, lung tissue, fat, and the dense tissues of the liver and the kidney. Various lights had been tried, viz., the electric, oxy-hydrogen, the limelight, and the magnesium. For all practical purposes the magnesium light was the best; it was the most convenient to use, and the light had the advantage of penetrating deeply. The discovery embodied in the foregoing is not quite the same as that which has been made more recently, of course,as will be perceived by all who have perused the accounts of Professor Rontgen's investigations. But so far as it relates to the permeability of supposed opaque substances by certain kinds of light, the resemblance between the older discovery and the later one is certainly curious. No wonder, therefore, that Sir Benjamin Richardson is keenly interested in the new theory, though, having only seen the newspaper accounts of it so far, he is not yet in a position to discuss it in detail. Mr. Frederick Treves, F.R.C.S., who, as one of the principal surgeons of the London Hospital, where accident cases abound, is in a position to speak as authoritatively on the subject as any man, was also interrogated as to the probable uses of the new photographic method from the surgical point of view. His opinion was not altogether favorable as to the probability of the discovery being of any great practicable value, though he agreed that it was by no means a matter to be pooh-poohed. For the detection of the presence of foreign substances in the human body, as possibly for the location of cancerous growths in some instances, it might be useful, he thought, though as regards fractures he doubted if it would assist surgeons very much. At the same time, he agreed that the subject was one emphatically to be pursued and worked out.



Saturday 21st March 1896  Page 5 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

To scientific people and, indeed, to the general public, the new photography continues to provide the best and most interesting form of entertainment. There have been two important exhibitions in connection with the process and its results this week, which have drawn crowded and enthusiastic audiences. Some of the best specimens I have yet seen were exhibited at the meeting of the Royal Photographic Society on Tuesday. Among them were the photographs of fish, notably a sole and a plaice, which showed their internal structure in a remarkably definite way. Another good idea as illustrating the nature of the new rays was embodied in the photograph of a pair of spectacles, the glasses of which came out as opaque-looking as the metal rims.



Saturday 2nd October 1897
Page 9 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)
Page 7 - The Advertiser (Adelaide SA)
Page 5 - South Australian Register (Adelaide SA)
Page 5 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)
Page 5 - The Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW)
Page 3 - The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW)
Page 3 - Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal (NSW)
Page 1 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Page 9 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Page 2 - Wagga Wagga Express (NSW)
Page 2 - Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW)
Page 3 - National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW)
Page 2 - Goulburn Herald (NSW)
Friday 8th October 1897  Page 27 - Albury Banner and Wodonga Express (NSW)

AN AUSTRALIAN ARTIST - WINS A PREMIER MEDAL
LONDON, 30th September
Mr. Walter Barnett, of Sydney, has been awarded the premier medal of the Royal Photographic Society, London, for head studies, the subjects being the late Sir Henry Parkes and Kowalski, the celebrated pianist.

HENRY WALTER BARNETT c.1894

Born 25th January 1862 St Kilda, Melbourne
Died 16th January 1934 Nice, France

PHOTOGRAPHER

Saturday 9th October 1897  Page 11 - Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW)

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Mr. Walter Barnett, of Sydney ("FaIk's Studios"), has obtained the Royal Photographic Society's premier medal for head studies of M. Kowalski and the late Sir Henry Parkes. The Royal Photographic Society's annual exhibition is the leading exhibition of the year and the work is usually the best that can be produced in the world. But two or three medals are given. Mr. Walter Barnett is principal of the well-known firm of Falk and the photographs referred to are two, of cabinet size, which were taken some two years ago. The picture of the late Sir Henry Parkes was taken at his residence, Kenilworth, Annandale, some twelve months before his death and found great favor with the original. An enlargement of this picture is exhibited in the Royal Arcade. The picture of M. Kowalksi was taken at the George-street studios. Both pictures are by the new light process, introduced by Mr. Barnett.



Saturday 9th October 1897  Page 8 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Monday 11th October 1897  Page 11 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Wednesday 13th October 1897  Page 11 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Monday 18th October 1897  Page 4 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

AN AUSTRALIAN ARTIST - Mr. WALTER BARNETT - WINS A PREMIER MEDAL
LATEST CABLE NEWS
The FALK STUDIOS, SYDNEY, awarded PREMIER MEDAL for PORTRAITURE by the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.

This is the HIGHEST HONOR attainable in the Photographic World.

STUDIOS, 490 GEORGE-STREET



Monday 18th October 1897  Page 4 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Wednesday 20th October 1897  Page 4 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Saturday 23rd October 1897
Page 8 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)
Page 8 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Monday 25th October 1897
Page 4 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)
Page 4 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Wednesday 27th October 1897  Page 4 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Saturday 30th October 1897  Page 8 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Monday 1st November 1897  Page 4 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)
Wednesday 3rd November 1897  Page 4 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)

AN AUSTRALIAN ARTIST - Mr. WALTER BARNETT - WINS A PREMIER MEDAL

LATEST CABLE NEWS
THE
FALK STUDIOS,
SYDNEY,

AWARDED PREMIER MEDAL
FOR PORTRAITURE
by the
Royal Photographic Society
of Great Britain.

This is the
HIGHEST HONOR ATTAINABLE
in the Photographic World.

STUDIOS 490 GEORGE-STREET

Saturday 15th February 1902  Page 10 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

EXPANDING BULLETS
At the recent annual exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society, London, some very interesting and instructive X-ray pictures were shown, taken by Dr. Hall-Edwards at various hospitals in Pretoria and other places, of wounds caused by Mauser bullets. These bullets, like most modern rifle projectiles, consist of lead enclosed in a nickel case and so long as that case remains intact the wound inflicted is small; but if the nickel point be cut off the softer metal forces itself through the case on impact and the wound inflicted is of a terribly severe character. The term "explosive" has been wrongly used in connection with bullets thus tampered with; but the effect is almost the same as if they actually carried a disruptive charge. In one of these pictures a bullet is shown, still entire and buried in the sole of a boot after piercing the wearer's foot; while in others we can see how the expanding bullet has torn through flesh and pulverized bone. If any doubt remains as to the use by Boers of these cruel missiles these pictures should at once set them at rest.



Thursday 9th April 1903  Page 6 - The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW)

ABOUT THE PLAYERTYPE PROCESS
Renewed interest in an eminently useful but little known process called Playertype is being shown in consequence of a Communication recently made to the Royal Photographic Society by its Inventor, Mr. Player. It is a copying process, that is to say, facsimiles of a print, a page of a book, or what not can be readily made without the use of camera, or, indeed, of any apparatus worth speaking of. It is some years ago now that Mr. Player received a medal for some results produced by his process shown at an exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society, which was in those days held in the Water-color Society's Gallery in Pall Mall and only now and again has it been prominently noticed since. For those who desire to make copies from books, in public libraries, Playertype offers remarkable facilities; moreover, greater accuracy is secured when from inexperience the amateur might find difficulty and fall into error when copying in the camera. The process consists briefly of placing a piece of sensitive development paper, such as bromide, face down in contact with the original to be copied and the back of the sensitive paper is exposed to the light. The result upon development is a paper negative.

It would seem that in the production of this paper negative some unknown principle is involved, unless the theory is accepted that the image is formed by reflected light, more light being thrown back by the white paper of the original than by the dark or inked portions. The process is said to be equally efficacious with a dry plate, but it is difficult to see how a general fog is to be avoided, inasmuch as the light has free action to the back of the plate and in passing through it before reaching the surface of the original to be copied can hardly fall to affect the sensitive film. Mr. Player's explanation of the principles involved in his process being due to light absorption, whatever that may mean, does not explain away the above mentioned difficulty.

Commenting upon this very point as long ago as November 1896, Mr. Cecil Hepworth said that before perfect results can be hoped for it is necessary to suppose that the light in making its first passage through the sensitive medium has no action upon it, but for some unaccountable but very convenient reason waits until it is thrown back upon it again before exerting its darkening influence. Such a condition it, is difficult to accept and it may be that satisfactory results are largely due to the character of the developer employed. All those portions of the picture which should be represented by white will have received a certain amount of exposure from the light which must pass through all parts of the paper and they must of necessity be fogged to at least a light gray, while other parts, which have received the same exposure, plus the reflection from the white parts of the print copied, will turn a darker gray, or even black. Hydroquinone possesses, to some extent at least, the property of affecting the plate only where it has received more than a limiting amount of exposure, while any exposure under this critical limit will be unaffected and it is conceivable that a developer might be constituted which would possess the restricted activity to a more marked degree. The value of Mr. Player's recent communication is in the direction of securing a more vigorous image and to this end he resorts to an application of the well-known principle in accordance with which the photographer prints his weak or thin negatives in the shade to secure greater vigor. So Mr. Player suggests the substitution of daylight for gaslight and the interposition of a yellow screen to retard the action of the light. He recommends a liquid screen, the yellow fluid being made by dissolving 6 grains picric acid in 16oz. of water and adding 5 drops of pure hydrochloric acid. Two plates of glass are to be cemented together with a separation of about one-sixteenth of an inch and this space is to be filled with the yellow fluid. The exposure with ordinary gaslight development paper, such as Gravura or Velox, should be about 30sec.



22nd June 1903  Page 200 - Vol. 10 No. 6 The Australasian Photographic Review

AFFILIATION WITH THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN
After some considerable delay which seemed unaccountable to all concerned at this end of the world, the matter of affiliation of our Australasian Photographic Societies with the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, has again been placed on the boards. We are glad to know this, and we are also glad to learn from the correspondence of the home Secretary which we publish elsewhere that there was no hitch in the machinery, but that the delay was caused by unavoidable circumstances. We are deeply interested in the movement, and promise all concerned our very hearty support in this effort to draw nearer the new and the old world lovers of our art, in the closest bonds of our Empire’s, friendship.



22nd June 1903  Page 211 - Vol. 10 No. 6 The Australasian Photographic Review

AFFILIATION WITH THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN
The following correspondence we are sure will be of considerable interest to the members of the various photographic societies throughout the Commonwealth interested in this very desirable movement. The following letters have been received by the Australian societies who have entered the affiliation:

THE AFFILIATION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETIES
66 Russell Square, London, W.C.
April 11th, 1903

“Dear Sir, In sending you the enclosed circular letter, copies of which are addressed by the same mail to all the societies in Australia and New Zealand from whom I have heard, I wish to express my sincere regrets that the Australasian branch of the Affiliation proposed by this committee has received, apparently, no further attention from us here. The absence of further steps on our part has given me much anxiety, the more so in view of the ready response which the several Societies gave to our suggestions. The protracted delay arose through a great increase in my work, outside the Affiliation, over a year ago on my appointment as Secretary of the Royal Photographic Society, through various internal changes in that body, and through the occurrence of the Society’s Jubilee this year, the preparations for which have given me really more work than I could cope with in the time. I recognize that these reasons cannot appeal to you and your members as they do to me, and I can assure you that I much regret to advance them. Through out the many months that have passed how ever, we have been preparing for the starting of the Australasian branch on a working basis as the opportunity occurred, and I am greatly pleased to advise you of the dispatch in a few weeks time of lectures and slides for circulation in Australia and New Zealand. The committee put on order at once, on hearing from the Australasian societies, additional lectures, which are now on hand or daily expected. I am also sending copies of this year’s photographic Red book to which each member of an affiliated society is entitled, and you will see that your society in included. The subscription of £1 1s. that you paid will be taken as for the current year of course, seeing that you can only now derive any benefit under the scheme, but you will doubt less have received during the past year copies of the journal which I sent pending the completion of the Australasian branch. I am anxious to catch the mail with my circular letter, and will reply in detail to your letters by the next. Assuring you of our deep though suspended interest in the welfare of the Australasian societies.

A.W.W. BARTLETT
HON.SECRETARY

In reply to the above the Hon.Secretary of the Queensland Photographic; Society has on behalf of his committee forwarded the following letter to all the societies interested.

QUEENSLAND PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
June 5th, 1903

Dear Sir, I have received from the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, a circular dated April 11th, 1903, in reference to the affiliation of the Australasian societies. As this circular has also been forwarded to each affiliated society, I may presume that you have received your copy and are therefore acquainted with its contents. My committee has considered the circular, and as this Society initiated the correspondence on the matter, I am requested to make the following suggestions for your consideration.

1. That the Australian and New Zealand societies form separate groups, each appointing their own agents.

2. That the Photographic Society of New South Wales be asked to act as the agent of the Australian societies. We consider that this is desirable, from the fact that Sydney is suitably situated as regards the other States, and more particularly as the point of despatch and receipt to and from New Zealand, as, although the New Zealand societies would form a separate group and have their own agent in New Zealand, I think I am correct in supposing that the lectures,will circulate, first in Australia, and then be forwarded to New Zealand. Several of these might of course be in circulation at the same time.

3. That the total cost of carriage in Australia be averaged by dividing by the number of societies participating, each of which would temporarily pay the forward carriage and afterwards have their accounts periodically settled by the society acting as agent.

The New Zealand societies would of course pay amongst themselves the total cost of transit from Sydney and through New Zealand, and back to Sydney.

The route most suitable appears to be as follows:
From London to Adelaide, thence to Melbourne, thence to Launceston, thence to Sydney, thence to Brisbane, and back to Sydney, and thence to New Zealand, back to Sydney, and thence direct back to London. The Adelaide society would temporarily pay the carriage from London, and the Sydney society would temporarily pay the carriage back to London.

There is one point, however, that requires elucidation. The carriage between London and Australia would probably be one of the largest items of expense, and it is a question whether this ought not to be shared by the New Zealand societies, as well as the Australian, but for the sake of simplicity in working, I should say it would be better to keep the expenses of the two groups separate.

It will be difficult to arrive at any exactly equitable system of financing, owing to the varying circumstances, but the above appears to my committee to be the most feasible scheme.

In order to facilitate an agreement on a definite arrangement and to save correspondence, I beg to suggest further that the replies to and opinions on the Royal Photographic Society circular, and on the suggestions herein, be forwarded by the respective societies to the Photographic Society of New South Wales, on the understanding that they will kindly formulate the results and adjust any differences.

A report of the progress of the matters from time to time in the Australian Photographic Review and the Australasian Photographic Journal, would also be of advantage.

W.C. VOLLER
HON.SECRETARY
Queen-street,
Brisbane.

THE AFFILIATION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETIES
66 Russell Square, London, W.C.

Dear Sir, I am in a position to inform you that the committee considered that the amount of support promised by the Australasian societies in response to the suggestion that the photographic societies of the antipodes should band together for their mutual benefit is sufficient to justify their going on with the scheme. There has been a much longer delay in setting the new branch upon a working basis than we anticipated at the out set, but there appears to be nothing now to prevent rapid progress being made. The committee has received the support of the following societies:

AUSTRALIA
Amateur Photographic Association of Victoria
Photographic Society of New South Wales
Queensland Photographic Society
South Australian Photographic Society
Northern Tasmanian Camera Club

NEW ZEALAND
Christchurch Photographic Society
Dunedin Photographic Society
Hawke’s Bay Camera Club
Wellington Camera Club

The number is still small, but the Committee entertain the hope that some additions may be made as soon as the advantages can be better calculated on the spot.

The Committee have given long and careful consideration to the question of the organization of the Australasian Branch, and have come to the conclusion that it will be better to deal with the Australian societies quite distinctly from the New Zealand societies, as it appears that the great distance that separates their nearest points presents a serious obstacle to their treatment as one body. The Committee would be sorry, how ever, to draw a hard and fast dividing line between the societies of New Zealand and Australia, as it is felt here that there is much that can be done by the two groups in common. It is proposed, therefore, to differentiate between the two groups only as far as may seem necessary, but in considering the extent of this differentiation the Committee recognize that its want of intimate knowledge of local requirements and conditions, places it in a difficult position. The Committee think that the Australasian societies must be free to make their own by-laws, so long as they do not depart from the spirit of the general regulations.

The Committee think that it may be found desirable that the Australian societies and the New Zealand societies should each agree that one of their number should act as correspondent agent of the affiliation in Australia and New Zealand respectively. Such a course would appear to simplify very largely the question of the circulation of lectures, slides, pictures, etc. The Committee therefore ask you to adopt this suggestion if it presents no difficulties with which we are unfamiliar, choosing your representative society perhaps more from its geographical position or its connection with the principal port of call, and consequent ability to discharge as cheaply and as expeditiously as possible the duties of receiving agent in respect to lectures, etc. The question of cost of transport of these lectures, etc., will naturally present itself prominently to your minds and you will not require to be advised that the arrangement of a progressive tour of a lecture is the only satisfactory method of dealing with the matter.

Our own arrangement is that each borrowing society pays the carriage of lectures one way, that is on receiving it from the one that had it previously, but this arrangement may be hard on some of your societies and notably those which first receive the lectures from England. A better scheme, if it can be arranged, will be one whereby the expenses in question shall be averaged annually and a definite share borne by each society This again, however, is matter for yourselves to decide.

In the case of the first batch of lecture slides, etc. which I am sending almost at once, I will use my own discretion as to the destination in the first place, but by the time the next consignment is ready I hope you will have decided upon a receiving society as suggested.

I need hardly add that the societies here will be most pleased to receive for circulation any set or sets of slides which the Australasian societies either collectively or individually may be willing to send over here. It occurs to me in this connection that you might combine to send some representative slides and enter them for the new lantern slide competition, the first of which organized this year has been a great success. Particulars are given in the Red Book which you will receive soon after this letter, and the judges report appears in the March journal which will be sent in due course. I will address further letters to you as occasion requires, but hope this will enable you to take further steps amongst yourselves to give effect to an Australian branch of the affiliation on the one hand and a New Zealand branch on the other, and between the two a closer identity of interest than is possible without a combination such as we have suggested, but unfortunately so tardily carried out owing to adverse circumstances.

A.W.V. BARTLETT
HON.SECRETARY
April 11th, 1903



Saturday 2nd November 1907  Page 7 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY
The great discovery has been made and the Royal Photographic Society has now for the first time in its history of over half a century, a regular section of its exhibition at the New Gallery, Regent-street, given over to real color photography. Seventy-two pictures by a score of workers, all obtained by a process that has not been in use three months and is still not yet actually on the British market, show the new power put into the hands of the photographers and testify to the marvelous nature of the "autochrome" plate as it is called. The invention is French and it adds one more to the long list of advances that we owe to that gifted race. Seventy years ago or thereabouts, Daguerre gave us the first practical photographic process and to-day two more Frenchmen, Auguste and Louis Lumiere have realized the greatest ambition of the photographer and have given him a plate on which he can take photographs in color as easily and as certainly as he can snapshot in the usual way. There are two outstanding features of this new photography. One is the extraordinary fidelity of the coloring and the other is that the photographer who wants to take pictures in color has no new process to learn. He simply substitutes the new plates for the ordinary ones he has been using, making one or two trifling changes in his procedure and the colors are there. Now we have the autochrome plate, which gives the photographer almost all that he has been wanting. Almost, but not quite all, for the color photographs are not yet on paper, but on glass and have to be held up to the light, that the colors may be seen. Just as the first photographs on silver plates, which had to be held at a certain angle, to be seen properly, soon gave way to a process that gave the picture on paper, so that we may expect, now that the one great step has been taken, that the other will speedily follow. Several inventors, including the Lumiere Bros. themselves, are hard at work on the problem and already the results are, to say the least, promising. Potato flour or potato starch is the wonder-working material of the new plate. It is a peculiarity of starch that the little granules of which it is made are all the same shape and very much all the same size. Different starches differ; wheat starch is one shape, arrowroot another and potato starch a third. This last has almost circular granules and in the autochrome plate these little circles are of such a size that a row of two thousand of them would make about an inch. The starch is divided into three lots and each lot is dyed a particular color - violet, green and reddish orange being the three colors used. The three lots of dyed starch are then mixed together in such proportions that in the mixture no one color predominates. It is no longer either red, green, or violet, but a kind of gray. A glass plate is coated with some sticky substance, the gray powder dusted over it, the spaces between these tiny particles are filled up with black and then after rolling and varnishing, the plate receives a sensitive coating just like an ordinary plate. In the camera, it is turned so that the light has to pass through the glass and through the starch layer before getting to the film and a special "yellow screen" is attached to the lens. The new plate is not yet on the market here, as the demand has been so great in France that the makers could not cope with it at first. But before the week has elapsed, British workers will be able to purchase it and try for themselves. Except the plates and the yellow screen nothing is wanted that the ordinary photographic chemists cannot supply.



Thursday 19th March 1908  Page 2 - Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA)

NATIONAL GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHS
When the Royal Photographic Society's idea for forming a national gallery of photographs of eminent people is put in practice every good photographer may become an "old master" one day. At present the scheme has not advanced beyond the initial stage of forming a committee to deal with the question. It was Mr. Frederick Hollyer who suggested the notion of forming the gallery. He has long specialized in portraiture and his sitters have included royalty, statesmen, artists and men of letters. He has offered a picked collection of 40 photographs to form the nucleus of the "gallery". Among those interested in the scheme are Lord Crawford, Sir William Abney, Sir Joseph Swan, Major General, Waterhouse and Mr. J.C.S. Mummery, President Royal Photographic Society. The committee for selection will be subdivided into sections, who will select the best portraits of the most famous men in the church, the world of science, letters, politics and so forth. "We shall begin in quite a small way", Mr. John Mcintosh, the secretary of the society, said, "by having a permanent show in our rooms. It will be open to the public. We shall rely chiefly on the professional photographers for portraits and if possible may have portraits of great people at different ages. Naturally, these would not all be hung on the wall; they would be indexed in cabinets. We have already a good collection of daguerreotypes, dating back to 1839—portraits, among others, of Lord Lovelace, who married Lord Byron's-daughter, Faraday and Chief Baron Pollock. It is our intention to have platinotype or carbon prints - they are absolutely permanent. The size of the pictures would be from half to whole plate". The idea should commend itself to Australian photographic enthusiasts.



Wednesday 11th November 1908  Page 1272 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)

What is probably the first direct color photograph ever taken of the rainbow was shown by Mr. J. McIntosh, at the Royal Photographic Society exhibition. It was successfully taken on an autochrome plate.



Wednesday 11th November 1908  Page 1272 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)

In the course of a paper which he read at the Royal Photographic Society meeting Mr. E.A. Salf said a photographic shutter which would work at 1-2000ths of a second, and on occasion at 1-6000ths of a second, enabling photographs to be taken at that speed, would shortly be placed on the English market.



Wednesday 11th November 1908  Page 1272 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)

THE DANSE DES APACHES IN "THE KING OF CADONIA"
During the week a ballot has been taken at Her Majesty's Theatre as to whether the Apaches Dance, so cleverly performed by Mr. Bert. Gilbert and Miss Lottie Sargent, should be omitted. Many people have supported the "Sydney Mail's" criticism, repellent rather than attractive, but the ballot shows a majority of about three to one in favor of the dance being retained. This striking picture was taken by Mr. Gilbert himself. As an amateur photographer he has won high distinction, and is a medalist of the Royal Photographic Society.

Saturday 9th January 1909  Page 9 - The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW)

THE QUEEN AS A "CAMERA FIEND"
Everybody appears to be wanting a copy of Queen Alexandra's volume of photographs, the "Christmas Gift Book". Her Majesty has been an enthusiastic photographer for many years and some splendid specimens of her work with the camera have been shown occasionally at the Royal Photographic Society's exhibitions. Her Majesty never travels without her camera; consequently her collection of photographs is both extensive and unique. In sea views especially the Queen's artistic instinct is strongly marked.

Some years ago her Majesty's skill as a photographer was probably the means of averting a disaster. She took a snapshot of a train as it was passing over Wolferton railway bridge. On developing the negative she noticed a curve in the bridge of such peculiarity that she decided that she had made a defective exposure and therefore took another photograph. The strange curve was again reproduced. The result was shown to the King, who, suspecting something wrong, caused an examination to be made and the defect was remedied.

Her Majesty is often observed taking snapshots from one of the balconied windows of Buckingham Palace, overlooking the Mall. She enjoys the amusement and takes commendable care not to waste an exposure. On these occasions the amateur notices with satisfaction that her Majesty seems to be afflicted with that half-shy, half-timid manner which oppresses a non-professional operator in the presence of a crowd of spectators. Recently she has carried out a novel idea in having a china tea service made with one of her snapshots reproduced on each piece. Some of the pictures are humorous, notably one of the King running. The King, the Princess Victoria, the Princess of Wales and Prince Edward are also snapshotters.



19th August 1909  Page 3 - Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 43

ART IN PHOTOGRAPHY
COLONIAL EXHIBITION
LONDON, 9th July
About half-a-dozen New Zealand amateur photographers are represented in a very interesting collection of pictures under the auspices of "The Amateur Photographer", in Long Acre. Most of the colonies are represented, as far afield as Hong Kong, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Somehow the South African colonies seem to have a very attractive sense of the artistic and plenty of scope. The pictures of Dutch and native life there, particularly those of Mrs Minna Keene FRPS, are works of art to which any painter might aspire. Sydney Taylor and John Quail, also of South Africa, are artists of the first water. The best of the New Zealand pictures are those of S.G. Frith, Gerald E. Jones and H. Winkelmann. Mr. Jones has several capital portraits and a fine statuesque group, "A Face and Form of Vigorous Youth" Mr. Winkelmann's best is the hilarious and hard riding Maori wedding party. "In the Glen," a most looking bush scene and "Watching" (a serious-looking party of gulls on the end of a stone seawall), are the best of Mr. Friths. Mr. Reginald Passey has a typical bush scene, "A Forest Clearing" with two small figures standing in the light, which floods through the tall trunks in the background. Mr. R.B. Walrond has several Wanganui River pictures which rather remind one of sepia sketches. There are two excellent pictures by Mr. Nelson Stedman, one "Hard Labour" a close view of a horse straining at the chains; the other a delightful "Evening" view of the trawling fleet at Napier. Mr. T.D. Leedham, who completes the New Zealand group, is represented on the walls by "Steering Home". He has some much finer work, chiefly long shore and harbor scenes, in the portfolios.



MINNA KEENE
DOB: 5th April 1861 Arolsen, Germany
Death: November 1943 Oakville, Ontario

Minna Keene moved to Britain between 1870 and 1880 where she became a photographer. Both her pictorial photographs and her portraits were recognized by various newspapers and journals at this time. Her work varied from ornithological images for English school books to portraits of famous statesmen. In 1908 she became a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, one of the first women to receive that honor. Around 1903 the Keene family moved to Cape Town, South Africa where Minna Keene did photographic studies of various ethnic groups. Ten years later the family moved to Canada and Keene was hired briefly by the Canadian Pacific Railroad to photograph the Rocky Mountains. The Keenes settled in Oakville in 1922, where Minna opened a studio. Keene's work was exhibited around the world during her lifetime and was included in the 1983 exhibit - Rediscovery: Canadian Women Photographers 1841-1941. Her photographs are in the collections of the National Archives of Canada and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

1908 awarded FRPS - Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society
Member - Linked Ring, London
Member - London Salon of Photography

MINNA KEENE

Wednesday 1st December 1909  Page 23 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)

"Few people know the reason why sailors are called 'tars", said a lecturer at the Royal Photographic Society Exhibition, London, recently. "The name dates from the time of Samuel Pepys, and is an abbreviation of 'tarpaulin'. It was used to distinguish the real seaman who knew his business from the 'swell' officer".



Saturday 26th March 1910  Page 14 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

VEGETATION ON THE PLANETS
Mr. C.P. Butler, astronomer at the Observatory of Solar Physics, has just presented to the Royal Photographic Society of London some very curious photographs of the spectra of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, taken by the American astronomer Percival Lowell, at the Flagstaff Observatory. There are, in fact, in these spectra absorption bands which coincide with the rays of chlorophyll, which is, as everyone knows, the green coloring matter of vegetable cells. Thus, one would be led to believe, from these results, that these planets might be covered with some sort of vegetation colored with chlorophyll. Remark worthy of attention: The lines corresponding with the absorption bands of chlorophyll are more intense as the planet is farther from the sun, so that it is on Neptune that plants would be met with in greatest numbers and would be most vividly colored with green. But, again, it would have to be admitted that these planets were all covered with luxuriant vegetation at the moment when the photographs were taken, which seems all the more improbable, because everything leads us to believe that Jupiter and Saturn are worlds far from being completed. However, these results are very interesting, although contradicting the opinions generally received and they deserve to be noted while awaiting another explanation.



Wednesday 12th October 1910  Page 20 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)

"The planet Jupiter, by the tremendous attraction it exercises, catches wandering comets, and whirls them into our solar system", said Mr. T.F. Connolly, of the Solar Physics Observatory, when lecturing at the Royal Photographic Society exhibition in Pall Mall East. "Most of the comets which are now respectable members of solar society have been captured by Jupiter, like flies on a spider's web".



Wednesday 12th October 1910  Page 21 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)

"The streets of Shakespeare's London are still with us", declared Mr. A.H. Blake M.A., when lecturing at the Royal Photographic Society Exhibition in Pall Mall East. The narrow lane that led from Bankside, in Southwark, to the Globe Theatre, was still in existence, as was Playhouse-yard at Black-friars, where Shakespeare attended rehearsals at the Blackfriars Theatre.



Wednesday 26th October 1910  Page 20 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)

"Rain is the finest of all nature's chisels", said Mr. F. Martin Duncan in a lecture at the Royal Photographic Society exhibition in Pall Mall East. "As it descends it collects carbonic acid gas from the atmosphere, and this has a wonderful dissolving action on porous rocks".



Wednesday 9th November 1910  Page 21 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)

Professor R.W. Wood, lecturing before the Royal Photographic Society on the photography of objects by invisible radiations, said that the ultra-violet rays suggested a possible method of detecting forgeries. He showed photographs of documents in which there had been erasures — one taken by ordinary light and the other by suppressing the visible light and allowing only the ultra-violet rays to affect the plate. An erasure quite invisible in the first was prominently shown up in the second.



Wednesday 22nd February 1911  Page 21 - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)

Mr. F. Martin Duncan showed, at an exhibition of natural history photographs, opened under the auspices of the Royal Photographic Society, England, some remarkable pictures of anthropoid apes. These animals, he said, insisted on examining the camera in side and out before being photographed, but, having satisfied themselves, posed in their pleasantest fashion.



Saturday 1st July 1911  Page 11 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

FOOLING THE BIRDLET
Lecturing at the Royal Photographic Society's exhibition, in London, Mr. F. Martin Duncan said he had watched a willow-wren, deliberately "fool" her offspring. After flying back to the young one fifteen times within half an hour, on each occasion with insects in its beak the mother bird rested for a few minutes and the veracious youngster appeared to be satisfied also. Presently the latter got restive and asked for more, whereupon the mother bird looked sharply round, made a movement as though to give the young one food and then, while the latter opened its mouth expectantly, tickled its throat with its empty beak. The young one made a gulp and relapsed into content. Mr. Duncan added that he had himself tickled the throats of impatient young cuckoos with a piece of straw, with the same result.



Wednesday 19th July 1911  Page 1 - The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate (NSW)

SECRET CAMERAS
Among the features of the Royal Photographic Society's exhibition in London were a number of secret cameras. One resembles a pair of field-glasses While the photographer is looking, apparently, at a distant view, he is in reality snapping the unsuspecting person at his side. It is said that a good deal of photography is done in this way.



Wednesday 22nd October 1913  Page 6 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

FORGERY OF STAMPS
A well-known bank-note expert, Mr. A.E. Bawtree FRPS, declares that a recent process has made it easy to produce, perfect counterfeits of the higher-priced Government stamps. At the 1912 exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society, Mr. Bawtree demonstrated the grave danger of employing intaglio plate printing for monetary documents on account of a new and simple process by which this class of work can be copied in facsimile with the utmost ease. The essential principle of this process is the production of a transparency by transferring the entire ink of an original plate impression on to glass. This produces an absolutely perfect transparency completely eliminating every difficulty which photography has hitherto presented to the copying of this class of work on account of the color of the original, texture of paper, diffraction, irradiation and halation. From this transparency the intaglio printing plate is produced either in ordinary photogravure or by a new and exceedingly simple process of line photogravure. Shortly after the British Government reverted to intaglio plate printing for the higher values of postage stamps, he challenged the Government to authorize him to reproduce any one of the intaglio-printed stamps in circulation. At the Royal Photographic Society's recent exhibition, Mr. Bawtree showed five sets of impressions printed from these plates. Each set consisted of three stamps. The two left-hand ones were genuine and the right-hand one in each case were counterfeit. The object of these sets was to demonstrate that there is greater difference between genuine stamps in circulation than between a genuine one and one of the photographic reproductions prepared by the simple methods which he had described.



Friday 29th May 1914  Page 7 - Bendigo Advertiser (Victoria)

SIR JOSEPH SWAN DEAD
A NOTED INVENTOR
London, 27th May

The death is announced of Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, Kt., M.A., F.R.S., D.Sc., inventor of the "Swan" incandescent electric lamp and discoverer of the means of making rapid dry photographic plates. Sir Joseph had reached the advanced age of 86 years.

Joseph Wilson Swan was born at Sunderland in 1828. He made an exhaustive study of chemistry and electricity and was thus enabled to make improvements in photo-mechanical printing and in electro-metallurgical deposition. He also invented the carbon process for making permanent photographs, but his greatest boon to students of photography was his discovery of the rapid dry plate. He was president of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-on-Tyne. corresponding member of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, honorary member of the Royal Photographic Society and the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and in addition, was a past-president of various kindred institutions. Sir Joseph was awarded the Hughes medal of the Royal Society in 1904 for his invention of the incandescent electric lamp and various improvements in the practical application of electricity. He also received the Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts in 1905, the Progress medal of the Royal Photographic Society and the gold medal of the Society of Chemical Industry. He was knighted in 1904.



Saturday 3rd April 1915  Page 16 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

PRAISE FOR BIRDS OF PREY
Lecturing at the Royal Photographic Society Exhibition, Mr. Alfred Taylor protested against the persecution to which the owl and the hawk were subjected in order that pheasants might be preserved. Birds of prey, he said, were the greatest friends of man, because they exterminated the rats, which did agriculturists alone fifteen millions of damage a year. If the Commission on the rat plague, now sitting, decided to preserve birds of prey they would accomplish their object in the cheapest and most complete way, with only a trifling cost to the game birds, which were not killed by birds of prey in any large numbers.



Saturday 10th April 1915  Page 14 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

FOOLING THE BIRDLET
Lecturing at the Royal Photographic Society's exhibition, in London, Mr. F. Martin Duncan said he had watched a willow-wren, deliberately "fool" her offspring. After flying back to the young one fifteen times within half an hour, on each occasion with insects in its beak the mother bird rested for a few minutes and the veracious youngster appeared to be satisfied also. Presently the latter got restive and asked for more, whereupon the mother bird looked sharply round, made a movement as though to give the young one food and then, while the latter opened its mouth expectantly, tickled its throat with its empty beak. The young one made a gulp and relapsed into content. Mr. Duncan added that he had himself tickled the throats of impatient young cuckoos with a piece of straw, with the same result.



Wednesday 28th April 1915  Page 6 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS - A NEW PROCESS
Some examples of "Kodachrome", a new process of photography in colors, were shown at the Royal Photographic Society (says "The Times"). The process is the discovery of Mr. Kenneth Mees, an Englishman, living in the United States. The new method consists in exposing two plates, sensitized for all colors, either simultaneously or in quick succession, one through a red filter, the other through a green filter. The plates are developed and fixed in the usual manner, after which the black silver forming the image is removed by simple chemical means. The plates are then dyed - that taken through the red filter in a green dye and that taken through the green filter in a red dye. The plates take up the dyes in inverse proportion to the original silver deposit. They are than brought face to face and bound up in register, the combination of the two-color images by transmitted light giving a reproduction of the original. In the portraits shown the flesh tints were especially well rendered and the absence of the screen rulings and dots of the usual three color process undoubtedly adds to the effect. From the commercial point of view, the most important factor is that any number of copies can be reproduced from the original pair of negatives. In that case the original negatives are preserved as negatives, master glass positives being made from them by contact in the usual way and from these the required number of negative, duplicates. It is also claimed that the process only adds two very simple alterations to the ordinary method of dealing with a photographic plate - namely, the bleaching and dyeing and also that it has the fundamental advantage that the plates can be retouched, etched and air-brushed, thus giving the artistic operator full scope for his abilities.



1918 PHOTOGRAMS

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
AND PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

R. CHILD BAYLEY

If everything were as it should be, the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain would be the official head and the most influential organization in the country, not only as far as the science and technique of photography are concerned, but also in pictorial photography. Few, if any, will contend that it occupies that position at the present time, in fact, to judge from the exhibitions of the last two or three years, it has receded more and more into the background, until to-day it has less support, on the pictorial side, compared with the rival exhibition, than at any time within my recollection.

When the nineteenth century had still ten or twelve years to run, the exhibition of what was then the Photographic Society of Great Britain was the event of the year in pictorial photography. All the recognized leaders were members and exhibitors; some of them played a prominent part in its management, in the selection and judging, and used their influence to secure for it the best work that was going. Then arose certain unfortunate disputes; the pictorial workers who had had most to do with the exhibition quarreled with the Society over personal matters that need not be revived, and after a couple of years founded the "Salon". For what in the jargon of to-day would be called "propaganda purposes", it was then discovered that the Society had never encouraged pictorial work, had been narrow, prejudiced and even retrograde; although at the very time that it was supposed to have held this attitude, those who brought the charge against it had been its guiding spirits. The keen competition of the Salon did the Society no harm — or rather, what harm it did was more than counterbalanced by the good it derived from having an active rival to keep it on its mettle. For ten or twelve years, if its position was challenged, it still maintained it; and anyone not a partisan, would admit that its exhibitions worthily represented the artistic as well as other aspects of photography of the day.

Then came a great opportunity. The old "Salon" fell to pieces; its members formed two distinct and hostile groups, one of which became the London Salon of Photography, and the other held one exhibition, but no more. Under astute management, there is no doubt that, at that time, the Royal Photographic Society might have effected an alliance which would have put it back into its old position, with no rival or competitor; but, unfortunately, the opportunity was allowed to slip by, and has not recurred. It was gradually outdistanced by the new comer, until for the last three or four years, at any rate, its exhibition, beside that of the London Salon of Photography, has taken a very second-rate place.

In sketching very briefly thirty years history, I have been moved to do so because the Royal Photographic Society has not had quite fair treatment. In those early days its competitor numbered amongst its supporters, some whose enthusiasm allowed them to indulge in advocacy that was not always just: when not intentionally unfair, they had sometimes been misinformed.

Looking on, as one who is not an exhibitor, but would like to see the Royal Photographic Society take the leading place which its name and past prestige indicate, I recognize that it has deserved some, but not all, of the hard things said and written against it. The questions I now wish to raise are — Can it hope to take the place it should do? and if so, how can that best be brought about?

A primary condition of any reform is a consciousness of the need of it; and it is not clear whether the authorities at Russell Square have yet reached that degree of knowledge. But assuming that they have, then the adoption of a deliberate policy to foster the pictorial side of the exhibition should, if persisted in, ultimately succeed. What has to be done, is to secure the interest and the confidence of the exhibitors. To get their interest, an attempt must be made to secure their help by showing that it is appreciated. The management of the pictorial exhibition should be entrusted to the strongest committee of pictorial workers that can be got together: by strongest is meant those who, in the eyes of the photographic public, are the leaders of pictorial photography. I will mention no names, but will ask the reader to jot down a dozen of the leading exhibitors, and then note how many of them, if any, have any part in the conduct of the Royal Photographic Society exhibition at present. Some of them send pictures, from one motive or another, to its shows; but even then they are generally represented by their more important or fresher work at the London Salon.

To secure such support would take time; but with time, I believe it could be got. Their influence would do the rest. It would avoid such evidence of being out of touch with the subject as is afforded by the award of medals in the pictorial section. It would never rest satisfied with such a dismal locale as the Suffolk Street Galleries. It would certainly have saved the Society from retiring into its shell at Russell Square, and leaving the West End picture gallery public entirely to its competitor.

I am inclined to think that such a controlling body as might ultimately be formed, would wish to cut the pictorial section altogether adrift from the rest, and this, in itself, would be a great gain. The lumping together of all sections is responsible for some, at least, of the trouble. So long as technical and scientific photography figure in the exhibition, it is impossible not to concede the right to its representatives to have a voice in the general conduct of the exhibition; while a Gallery which would accommodate all sections, while providing properly, for the pictures, now that the New Gallery is not available, is no longer to be found.

Is there any hope that the Society will realize the need for doing something, and will put itself in a position to do it? I am not sufficiently behind the scenes to know. I can only hope that it will. Pictorial photography to-day is that side of camera work which appeals to the largest number, and which includes the keenest enthusiasts; and the Society cannot take its proper place unless it makes a bid for the lead in that, as well as in other branches.



Friday 17th January 1919  Page 7 - The Blue Mountain Echo (NSW)

SCENIC PHOTOGRAPHY
In Mr. E.G. Garratt, Katoomba has one of the finest amateur scenic photographers in the State and he has attained the right to be considered such, as the result of three short years of hard study, added to a natural artistic sense. Three years ago, Mr. Garratt took his little daughter to a local "pro" (now defunct) for the purpose of having her photo taken. After the sixth attempt he decided to purchase a camera and "have a shot himself". His very first attempt proved great success, pictorially and it gave our friend the photographic fever, from which he still suffers. Mr. Garratt made photography a deep study, just as other men do their profession and by this means has climbed to the top of the tree. It is not generally known that Mr. E.G. Garratt is a member of the Royal Photographic Society having had his fees paid by the Society, for three years on account of some of the excellent work he has turned out. Examples of his work may be seen in some shop windows around the town, including Bridal Veil in a mist, which won the Australian Photo Review, first prize, about twelve months ago.

                   

left: "MORNING" by E. GORDON-GARRETT from KATOOMBA NSW
middle: "BRIDAL VEIL THROUGH THE MIST" by E. GORDON-GARRETT from KATOOMBA NSW
right: "TWILIGHT MISTS" by E. GORDON-GARRETT from KATOOMBA NSW

Wednesday 1st November 1922  Page 8 - The Register (Adelaide, South Australia)

ADELAIDE CAMERA CLUB
Notable distinctions, in addition to the many previously received, have been gained by Mr. A. Wilkinson, the well-known South Australian art photographer and ex-President of the Adelaide Camera Club, two of whose pictures were recently purchased by the Public Library Board a a nucleus of the first photographic section to be established in Australia as a supplement to a National Gallery. English newspapers report that Mr. Wilkinson has had hung in the gallery of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain two of his art works, "The Monarch of the Glen", and "Overlooking the Plain of Adelaide", both studies of Glen Osmond, as also is another, "The Quarry," which has been accepted by the London Salon of Photography as one of the 414 selected from more than 4,000 which had been sent in for competition.



Wednesday 24th January 1923  Page 8 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

A WONDER WOMAN
A wonder woman of the British Zoo has been revealed by Mr. J.E. Saunders F.Z.S., who, in a lecture to the Royal Photographic Society, London, described some of her amazing familiarities with the jungle creatures. She was on terms of friendship with wolves, bears, alligators and vultures, he said. Indeed, her friends ranged from the three-ton hippopotamus down to a nightingale. She had often sat on the hippo's back. She had played with a wolf in its cage. He was quite friendly, though once he gave her a black eye. One eight-year-old bear would stand upright and take a carrot from her lips with its mouth, while a ten-year-old alligator would permit her to carry it about for a quarter of an hour at a time. A nervous animal at the best of times, the giraffe would follow her and take tit-bits from her fingers and in spite of its ferocity the biggest golden eagle had allowed her into its cage; while the evil-looking Pondicherry vulture would lie on its back on her lap.

Miss Gladys M. Callow F.Z.S., of Malda Vale, who holds an educational appointment in Willesden, is the charmer of wild animals and she says she has always been fond of animals and fond of the Zoo. "As a youngster", she told a correspondent, "I always kept pets - lizards, snakes, rats, owls, a marmoset and a parrot, to say nothing of cats and dogs. There are everybody's pets at the Zoo, but I set out to make friends of some of the animals who seemed to be nobody's pets - such as Susie, the beautiful ocelot, from South America and Alphonse the Spitfire (a genet). Before long I could get Susie to turn somersaults for me and in time I was able to play with Alphonse as though he were an ordinary kitten. Bob, the big hippo, would always come to me at last when I called".

Of all her friends, the strangest, she admits, are the vultures and eagles. Her nightingale friend is dead, but he would come to the front of the aviary whenever he was called and would take tit-bits from her fingers when she went inside the cage.



Tuesday 18th September 1923  Page 5 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHS OF VOICE
The Royal Photographic Society is exhibiting audrometric photographs of Melba's voice. One shows the Melba trill, of which the line is sharp and almost as regular as a fence, but waning and swelling slightly as it goes along the strip of print. Another print shows what is described as "Melba's exercise for the cure of corns on vocal chords". This shows the perfect maintenance of wave formation. A third print shows the lower C sung on the vowel sound "Ba".



Saturday 25th September 1924  Page 20 - The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA)

THE FATHER OF PHOTOGRAPHY
HOW HE USED THE SUN
With due piety the Royal Photographic Society has erected a tablet to the memory of Henry Fox Talbot, "the father of modern photography" (says the London "Daily Telegraph"). It is to be feared that the modern photographer, whose name is legion, spares but little attention for the history of his processes, but those who have found the taking of photographs made so easy that tolerable pictures of almost any subject can be produced with little trouble may profitably spend a moment on the difficulties which Fox Talbot found and his elaborate methods. For centuries it has been known that salts of silver blacken on exposure to light and almost as long the camera obscura has been a plaything.

THE FIRST CAMERAS
About the beginning of last century a number of people were independently attempting to bring these two discoveries into fruitful association. In 1835 Fox Talbot made simple box cameras for taking views of his house on sensitized paper. He was a Cambridge mathematician of some distinction, who became interested in optics and published monographs thereon almost as soon as he left the University. He must have had a mind of singular energy and versatility, for, while he was engaged on his photographic investigations, he was also studying the antiquity of the Book of Genesis and later he became one of the three original decipherers of the cuneiform inscriptions of Nineveh.

DAGUERRE'S PROCESS
Just before the once-famous process of Daguerre was published, in 1839, Talbot described his own success to the Royal Society. It is fair to say that the daguerreotype, whether to Daguerre or Niepce belongs the credit of its invention, was the first photograph which had any practical value. But in 1841 Fox Talbot patented his calotype process. He selected paper, he brushed it over with a solution of silver nitrate, he dried it at the fire, he dipped it into a solution of potassium iodide, he brushed "gallo-nitrate of silver" over it and then he exposed it in the camera. Sometimes it developed itself in the dark, sometimes more "gallo-nitrate" was necessary. Then the paper was made transparent by the application of wax and Fox Talbot had what he, first of men, called a negative. Let the modern photographer, with his rolls of film and his tanks and his prepared solutions, reflect on the tasks which the "father of modern photography" set himself. It seems a far cry from his laborious pictures of fern leaves and houses to the photographs of moving bullets and bubbles and of mountains a hundred miles away in the Photographic Society's new exhibition. But Fox Talbot's calotypes are not yet a century old. Who can guess what photography will be doing a century hence?



Saturday 8th November 1924  Page 14 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

ART IN PHOTOGRAPHY
The advance of photography is nowhere more dramatically illustrated than in the museum of the Royal Photographic Society in Russell-square and a visit to the society's 69th annual exhibition reveals that photography in all its branches has, indeed, been developed to a fine art. One of the gems of the collection is Mr. Martin Johnson's picture of wild life in Kenya colony. Seven zebras are shown drinking at a pool, while a dozen others wait around: in the background are three gnus and other zebras with young. The markings of the zebras light up the picture in striking fashion. Mr. Herbert E. Ponting's photograph of a Weddell Sea seal and calf is a charming nature study and his series of Antarctic pictures is a feature of the Exhibition. The Overseas Dominions are represented by several creditable productions. Mr. J. Vanderpant, of New Westminster B.C., is exhibiting a fine head under the title of "A Son of the East", which has been chosen for full-page illustration in the society's catalog. The section of natural history photography is notable for splendid examples of record work, illustrative of the fauna of Southern Bengal by Mr. Oswald J. Wilkinson, executive engineer to the Calcutta Corporation. Every record has been made of the wild creatures in their free and natural-state, no hiding places or other contrivances such as might possibly influence the creatures in acting otherwise than of their own free will having been adopted. One can only admire the patience and skill of the artist in obtaining these wonderful pictures of butterflies and birds. Mr. Otho Webb, of Jandowae, Queensland, also enriches this section with his photographs of lizards and of tawny frog mouth on the nest with chicks. Mrs Keene FRPS, of Oakville, Ontario, sends a fine "Fruit Study" and Mr. Charles E. Brine, of the University of Western Ontario, is responsible for some excellent radiographs. Chief interest in the technical exhibits centers round an invention which brings kinematography within the means of the amateur photographer.



Thursday 13th November 1924  Page 6 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

FUTURE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Mr. William Harding, editor of "The Camera", in opening a discussion on "The Federation of Photographic Interests for the Advancement of Photography", at the Royal Photographic Society, London, said that the proposed federation did not mean the surrendering of individual independence of the many camera clubs and organizations throughout the country. There were three great classes in the photographic world, the manufacturers, the dealers and the consumers, amateurs and professionals. It was proposed to unite these classes by their common interest in the greatest of the graphic arts. Four million people possessed cameras in England and the federation would bring them together to discuss the varied aspects of photography. If it was taught at school, there would grow up a generation which really understood the many scientific aspects of this great hobby. A committee was appointed to inquire further into the details of the scheme.



Tuesday 7th April 1925  Page 2 - The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHY
HOW IT WAS DEVELOPED
"With due piety the Royal Photographic Society has erected a tablet to the memory of Henry Fox Talbot, the father of modern photography", says the London "Daily Telegraph".

It is to be feared that the modern photographer, whose name is legion, spares but little attention to the history of his processes, but those who have found the taking of photographs made so easy that tolerable pictures of almost any subject can be produced with little trouble may profitably spend a moment on the difficulties which Fox Talbot found and his elaborate methods. For centuries, it had been known that salts of silver blacken on exposure to light and almost as long the camera obscura has been a plaything.

About the beginning of last century a number of people were independently attempting to bring these two discoveries into fruitful association. In 1835 Fox Talbot made simple box cameras for taking views of his house on sensitized paper. He was a Cambridge mathematician of some distinction, who became interested in optics and published monographs thereon almost as soon as he left the university. He must have had a mind of singular energy and versatility, for while he was engaged on his photographic investigations, he was also studying the antiquity of the Book of Genesis and later he became one of the three original decipherers of the cuneiform inscriptions of Nineveh.

Just before the once-famous process of Daguerre was published in 1839 Talbot described his own success to the Royal Society. It is fair to say that the daguerreotype, whether to Daguerre or Niepce belongs the credit of its invention, was the first photograph which had any practical value. But in 1841 Fox Talbot patented his calotype process. He selected paper, he brushed it over with silver nitrate, he dried it at the fire, he dipped it into a solution of potassium iodide, he brushed "gallo-nitrate" of silver over it and then exposed it in the camera. Sometimes it developed itself in the dark, sometimes more "gallo-nitrate" was necessary. Then the paper was made transparent by the application of wax and Fox Talbot had what he, first of men, called a negative.

Let the modern photographer, with his rolls of film and his tanks and his prepared solutions, reflect on the tasks which the "father of modern photography" set himself. It seems a far cry from his laborious picture of fern leaves and houses to the photographs of moving bullets and bubbles and of mountains a hundred miles away, in the Photographic Society's new exhibition. But Fox Talbot's calotypes are not yet a century old. Who can guess what photography will be doing a century hence?



Thursday 15th October 1925  Page 10 - Cairns Post (Qld.)

FIRST KODAK
100 YEARS AGO
Who discovered photography ? France, in July last, celebrated the centenary of photography, commemorating the fact that in July, 1825, Joseph Nicephore Niepce invented the Bitumen process. Last year, however, a memorial tablet was unveiled at the Royal Photographic Society, London, to the "Father of Photography", Henry Fox Talbot, who produced a permanent negative on paper in 1839. To these rival claims must be added those of Josiah Wedgwood and Sir Humphrey Davy, who obtained results by coating paper with a solution of silver nitrate prior to 1802. There may be cited, too, the invention of the Camera Obscura, ancestor of the modern Kodak, by J.D. Porta, in the year 1569 and it is worth recording that the first lens was discovered in the ruins of Ninevah and is now in the British Museum.

For over fifty years from the production of the first negative, photography remained a mysterious, art practiced by professional specialists and a few amateurs whose enthusiasm carried them over the difficulties of the process. Outdoor photography was a toilsome and tedious exercise. The traveling outfit, for instance, included a bulky view camera, heavy tripod, equally heavy and burdensome plates, a dark tent for loading and sensitizing plates before exposure, a nitrate bath and even a water barrel.

George Eastman, by his invention of the Flexible Roll Film in 1890, changed all this; the cumbersome equipment, with its tent and water bottles, soon gave place to the handy daylight-loading Kodak. From a secret, art, photography now evolved into a readily understandable process that has become everybody's hobby.



Saturday 29th October 1927  Page 14 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

BEAUTY IN PHOTOGRAPHS
The exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society in the Russell-square galleries represents work done by members in two hemispheres, and it is an exhibition which can claim to be international. After last year's exhibition, the entire collection was taken across the Atlantic and shown in Washington and New York. This venture has borne excellent fruit. Many American photographers have since joined the society, and thirty examples of their work are in this year's show. These include aerial pictures of New York and Niagara Falls. The chairman of the New York Camera Club has given the society £1000 to further the work of pictorial photography, and this is to be used very much on the lines of the Chantrey bequest to the Royal Academy. The first purchaser for the society's permanent collection of photographs under the scheme will be announced shortly. In addition to the American pictures in the present exhibition, there are forty from Continental members. The remainder of the 220 prints are by British members. A very high artistic standard is maintained all through the exhibition, and because of the wide area from which the collection has been made there is great variety. A nature section provides examples of wonderful success in catching birds and beasts in natural surroundings. A remarkably fine picture by Dr. Vevers of crocodiles in the new reptile house at the Zoo has all the atmosphere of the tropics - a perfect tribute both to the work with the camera and to the work of those who have created this most realistic new feature at the Zoo. There are many clever studies of flowers in color. One of outstanding beauty is Mr. F.R. Newen's Carbro print of "Daffodils in Kew Gardens". The eye sees the flowers and their foliage, and the grass from which they lift precisely as the eye sees them on a still day. The exhibition will be open to the public until October. It will then go to Chicago.



Saturday 12th November 1927  Page 14 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW)

MARVELS OF THE CAMERA
The seventy-second annual exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society is an international show, the principal outside contributions being from the United States. The Air-map Corporation of America exhibits some magnificent aerial photographs, including one of Greater New York from an altitude of 12,000 feet, perhaps the finest picture of the kind ever made. Some excellent metallurgical photographs are supplied by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and several notable astronomical prints by the Mount Wilson Observatory at Washington and the Lick Observatory at Mount Hamilton, California. But Great Britain more than holds her own in the domain of scientific photography and the special exhibits of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich - including the photograph of the corona taken at Giggleswick on June 29 - and of the National Physical Laboratory reach the highest plane of technical excellence. The radiographs are gruesomely impressive, while the photo-micrographs are above the average of previous years in point of genuine scientific interest. The most striking is Martin Duncan's "Try panosoma Gambiense In Blood of a Rat", but A.E. Smith's "Fight to the Death Between Two Wood Ants" will be more popular with ordinary visitors. In the tele-photographic exhibit interesting specimens of internal church decoration and windows are shown by Messrs. Pitcher, Hood and Cave respectively. The last named also contributes important meteorological studies dealing with the great thunderstorm of last July. A remarkable little series of photographs taken by the infra-red rays is shown by J.F. Corrigan, of Manchester. Pictorially speaking, trees and grass, which show up white as if covered with snow, dead black skies, and excessively heavy shadows, are not attractive, but these curious photographs may be taken as affording a forecast of a time when for ordinary portrait photography even artificial illumination may be dispensed with and good, clear pictures obtained in even a London fog.



15th May 1928
Volume 35 Number 5 - Page 241
The Australasian Photographic Review

DUNEDIN PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
NEW ZEALAND
REV. H.O. FENTON NOW A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY COUNCIL
Our special correspondent in London, the Rev. H.O. Fenton, has received the honor of being elected a member of the Council of the Royal Photographic Society. We congratulate Mr. Fenton and we think the Royal Photographic Society should also receive our congratulations as we believe we can safely say this is the first occasion on which the Society has had a man on the Council thoroughly familiar with Australasian photographic conditions, more particularly those affecting New Zealand.



Wednesday 27th June 1928  Page 8 - Evening News (Sydney, NSW)

HONOR FOR AN AUSTRALIAN
Mr. MONTE LUKE is receiving congratulations all round on having been admitted as an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society, which represents to photographers what the Royal Academy is to painters: the hall mark of art. Apart from knowledge of his work by Authority in Australia. Mr. Luke has come directly under notice by having examples of his art hung in the London Salon of Photography, where they attracted special interest ranged alongside the finest accomplishments in photography. The new ARPS is President of the Photographic Society of New South Wales, member of the Sydney Camera Circle and executive member of the Australian Salon of Photography. He is an Australian of the second generation, on which fact he is awarded an extra cheer.



Tuesday 18th December 1928  Page 16 - Evening News (Sydney, NSW)

A NEW FRPS
MONTE LUKE'S HONOR
Cable advice has been received in Sydney that Mr. Monte Luke, the well-known camera artist, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.

Mr. MONTE LUKE

Dr. Julian Smith, of Melbourne, has been elected an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society.

Mr. Luke's honor is the highest that a photographer can attain in the British Empire, the Society being recognized by camera men as the equivalent of the Royal Academy to artists.

The articles, of the Society provide: Fellows shall be those Associates who, in the opinion of the Council, possess distinguished ability or originality. Mr. Luke FRPS, has the distinction of having been elected an Associate and a Fellow in the same year, the minor honor having been bestowed on him early this year.

The distinction he has attained will be more rapidly appreciated when it is known that Mr. Luke has been exhibiting with the Society for ten years, and, excellent as Sydney knows his work to be, it is only now that the highest honor has come to him.



Wednesday 19th December 1928  Page 16 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)

HONORS FOR CAMERA ARTIST
The distinction that has come to Mr. Monte Luke, the well-known Sydney camera artist, of being added to the list of Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society of England, will bring him many congratulations from fellow camera men throughout the Commonwealth who know both "Monte" and the excellence of his work. In days when he was merely a struggling photographer — a gift he inherited from his "Dad", who for years has done the picture work for the Melbourne "Leader" — he displayed evidence of having an "eye for a picture", whether of an ordinary "sitter", or newspaper illustrating, with which he filled in some of his time. To-day there probably are few photographic galleries which do not exhibit a "Monte Luke" study.



15th February 1929  Page 74 - Australasian Photo-Review

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
There are three classes of members of the Royal Photographic Society, namely, Fellows, Associates and ordinary members. The Fellowship is awarded only to Associates and in recognition of outstanding work in some branch of photography. Mr. Monte Luke is one of the latest Fellows. The Associateship is a mark of high standing in the photographic world and Dr. Julian Smith has just received that award.



Thursday 21st March 1929  Page 15 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

OPEN HEARTH
FIRST STEEL IN AUSTRALIA
The series of articles which appeared on Friday, March 15, and the three following issues of the "Sydney Morning Herald", upon the development of the Iron and steel industry in Australia, make very interesting reading. Probably it was not the author's fault that the information regarding the production of the first charge of steel in the Siemens-Harvey furnace at Lithgow was so meager. It is difficult after an interval of 29 years to obtain particulars regarding any event, of which records are not kept. The difficulties which lay in the path of Mr. J.B. Jones, the man who produced the first charge, were great. He had to train a body of men who had never even seen such a thing as a Siemens-Harvey furnace. The sight of a charge of molten steel flowing into a ladle with the sparks flying in all directions is a beautiful sight at a distance, but it is another matter to train novices to work in it. The leader, however, had a remarkable personality, and the novices did very well in their first baptism. All the tools required had to be made on the spot. The coal used was not suitable, the quantity of ash which it left necessitated frequent cleaning of fires, which militated against an even temperature. This was one of the greatest obstacles of all, and the charge being only a small one needed the most careful attention. But in spite of all the difficulties, the quality of steel produced was excellent.

Mr. Jones had been trained in one of the greatest steel centers of Great Britain - the famous Dowlats works. Before he was 27 he had a most tempting offer to go to Ohio, U.S.A., but refused it.

He went 36 miles and started a very successful steel plant at Llanelly. Back to Dowlats in a few years, he refused a most tempting offer to proceed to Russia, but went to Morriston, and there in course of time he built the largest steel plant in South Wales. An instance of his ingenuity was shown here when a sudden increased demand for steel came along. He was asked how long it would take to increase the output 25 per cent. "Forty-eight hours" was his reply. The firm had visions of installing big new ladles, the ones in use not being large enough. Mr. Jones simply had a long lip fitted to the old ladles, and the sight of molten slag pouring from the furnace into a ladle full to the top being led away by the lip, from which it fell into the pit, was a novel sight. The steel output was increased 25 per cent, with only the cost of the lip. Another innovation at this works he introduced was a safety guard to protect the pitmen when the molten steel blew out under the lids of the molds. Men were often burnt prior to this, but not one suffered after the introduction of the guard.

From Morriston, Mr. Jones was asked to go to Briton Ferry. The steel furnaces at this plant had been unsatisfactory since their erection, and the length of time a charge took to melt meant either the finding of the cause of the trouble or closing down the plant. In two days' time Mr. Jones had located the trouble. The furnaces were not far from a canal, and built below it, and water seeped through to the generators. The furnaces were raised a few feet, and everything went satisfactorily. From Briton Ferry Mr. Jones went to Ebbw Vale, and there he installed some large Siemens-Harvey furnaces, which were very successful. It was this type of furnace that was installed at Lithgow. In the ordinary Siemens open hearth furnace, the retorts are placed about 40 or 50 yards from the furnace. The gas is brought across in a big tube, generally 14 feet from the ground. The gas passes under the furnace, through the regenerators, and out through the ports on to the hearth. The gas is changed from one side to the other every half hour. In the Siemens-Harvey the retort is built alongside the furnace, and the gas blown into the hearth by steam pressure. The Siemens-Harvey is compact and the saving in ground space alone is considerable. With regard to the other merits or demerits, there is of course the usual controversy between steel experts.

When Monte Luke took a photograph of Mr. Jones, he was so struck with his appearance that he asked him to sit specially for him. The result under the caption, "The Old Steelmaker", was sent to London to the exhibition held under the auspices of the Royal Photographic Society, and gained for Mr. Luke the highest honor awarded - the Silver Plaque.



Sunday 9th June 1929  Page 14 - Sunday Times (Sydney, NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHER'S "LITTLE BIRD" OUT OF DATE
The photographer's favorite device with children was the classic: "Now, look at the little bird in the cage". An entirely new and cheap type of automatic photo-machine is to be demonstrated by the London Photographic Society in London, which will induce the pleasant look mechanically. While you are posing before the lens a series of pictures will be flashed before you to engage your attention; say, a beautiful, happy landscape or a funny cartoon. And your reflexes will be registered in the photographs.



Monday 26th August 1929  Page 12 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

TALKING FILMS
AN AUSTRALIAN INVENTION
MR. R.T. HAINES'S CLAIM
Most people look on talking films as an invention evolved only within the last three or four years - the very latest product of scientific research, post-dating the wireless and the phonograph. But, as a matter of fact, a New Zealander who has resided for some years in Sydney, Mr. Robert Thorn Haines, took out patents in London for a process of recording talking films akin to that in use to-day as long ago as 1907. He has proved the authenticity of his claim by producing the relevant documents.

Mr. Haines had worked on the idea for some time before he left Australia on a short visit abroad. While in London (he says) he heard of two other men who were experimenting on the same lines - Mr. Eugene Lauste, formerly connected with Thomas Edison's laboratory, and Mr. John Pletts, of the Marconi Company. Both of them were interested in what he had done, and all three joined in further research, which resulted in a patent being obtained.

The next care was to seek capital, so that the new idea could be exploited, Mr. Haines first approached Lord Fitzjames, who proved highly enthusiastic. Unfortunately for the inventor's hopes, Lord Fitzjames died suddenly only three days after they had gained the promise of his support. Next, they applied to Mr. Parr, of Parr and Company, a well-known financial concern, and once again they seemed on the road to success, but when all preparations had been completed Parr and Company unexpectedly went into liquidation.

At this stage, Mr. Haines lost heart and returned to Melbourne, where he had been living since 1887. His fellow-worker, Lauste, however, went on seeking to exploit the invention. He gave a demonstration of its powers at the Hotel Cecil; and then put it on board ship for the United States, but on the voyage, somehow or other, the machine became broken, and apparently Lauste did nothing further with it.

The invention as patented was quite distinct from the method of synchronizing sound with visual images by means of a connection between an ordinary phonograph and a cinematograph. Such a connection had often been attempted, even as early as 1909; but great difficulties surrounded it, owing to the fact that both the gramophone and the cinematograph were then in a very imperfect state of development. The method usually adopted was to make the record first, and then to take the picture with the record playing, while the person being photographed followed with his lips the sounds that the gramophone emitted. The synchronization obtained in this way was of necessity far from exact.

Like the system of recording and reproducing talking films which is used by Movie-tone to-day, the invention of Messrs. Haines, Pletts, and Lauste, used photography itself as the means of recording and reproducing, sound and of obtaining synchronization. Dealing with Mr. Haines's work under the title of "Talking Pictures", the American magazine, "Photo-Era", for December, 1909, says: "The process by which the result is obtained consists in collecting the sound waves at the place where they originate, and conveying them electrically to the recording instrument, where they are utilized to vary a light-source, or the rays emanating from it, so as to produce on the sensitized film, side by side with the pictures or images simultaneously taken, a series of photographic impressions of varying opacity and transparency, or otherwise of varying form; which, in turn, are caused to vary the rays from a fixed light-source, so as correspondingly to vary the resistance of a continuous electric current operating a loud-sounding microphone by which the sounds are reproduced, simultaneously and in exact synchronism with the pictures or images, at the place where they originally emanated from".

According to Mr. Haines, very definite results had been obtained along these lines before he left London. With the help of primitive apparatus, Lauste had succeeded in recording his voice.

Mr. Haines has experimented extensively also with the telegraphic transmission of pictures. He took out provisional specifications in 1907 for a contrivance on these lines, and a year or two later the same principle was embodied in similar apparatus by Professor Korn, of Munich, who succeeded in transmitting a picture of King Edward by telegraph from Paris to Berlin. Mr. Haines still claims that the principle of this machine is superior to that of the apparatus now being used by the Postal Department, and leads to more efficient transmission.

Another phase of Mr. Haines's work has concerned itself with color photography. He has read a paper on this subject to the Royal Photographic Society in London, and the results of his researches were used by the experts who developed the Kinemacolour process. At present he is engaged on a device which, he says, will obviate the use of a shutter in the showing of motion pictures.



Wednesday 4th September 1929  Page 10 - Crookwell Gazette (NSW)

BERT GILBERT
A well-known comedian, who will be heard quite often from 2FC and 2BL, is Bert Gilbert, who is well-known abroad as one of the world's cleverest comedians. Mr. Gilbert's earliest efforts were in his father's company. Mr. Gilbert, comes of a family bursting with theatrical tradition and his family claims to be the oldest theatrical family in the profession. Six generations to be exact. That is borne out by the fact that Mr. Gilbert has several letters, and old play bills to bear out his claim. The comedian specializes mostly in musical comedy and pantomime work. He was the first singer of the songs "This Bit of the World belongs to Us" and "Sons of the Sea", although Mr. Gilbert does not claim to be the first singer of "Gilbert the Filbert".

This is Mr. Gilbert's third trip to Australia from England and he likes us so much that, he intends settling here. Mr. Gilbert writes his own sketches and the type of work he will put over the air from the A.B.C. will be from his own pen. Not only is Mr. Gilbert an actor, but he is a water-color and oil and pastel artist whoso works have been bought by connoisseurs in England and Africa and America, and is the proud exhibitor at the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Truly a man of many parts.



Wednesday 7th September 1929  Page 10 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW)

NEWCASTLE ARTIST
Mr E.J. Dann, of Newcastle, who is well known as a pictorial photographer, submitted three pictures for approval at the last exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society, London, held during the autumn of 1928. After going to other affiliated societies exhibitions in Great Britain, the pictures have been returned, together with a certificate of merit for "Kootingal", a fine evening study in bromoil of this romantic little village near Tamworth. In all 154 pictures were accepted and hung. It speaks well for the Australian pictorialists that about one-third of the successful pictures were Australian and included studies and landscapes from Messrs. Monte Luke, Cazneaux, A. Smith, Eutrope and J.B. Eaton. Mr Dann is proud of his success in such high-class company. The space at the gallery in London is limited and the competition keen. Pictures selected for the honor of hanging came from many parts of the world, including Burma, India, New Zealand, Canada, Egypt, Federated Malay States, Bermuda, Griqualand (South Africa), Cape Colony, Jamaica, Singapore, Trinidad and The Transvaal. Australia is notable for the fine type of its workers in pictorial photography.



Wednesday 23rd October 1929  Page 28 - The World's News (Sydney, NSW)

MODERN PHOTO DEVICE
The art of photography has advanced beyond the stage when the operator used to say in a very perfunctory way, "Look pleasant, please", or "Now, look at the little birdie in the cage".

An entirely new and cheap type of automatic photo-machine is being demonstrated at the Royal Photographic Society, which will induce the pleasant look mechanically. While you are posing before the lens a series of pictures will be flashed before your attention; say, a beautiful, happy landscape, or a funny cartoon. And your reflexes will be registered in the photographs.



Wednesday 30th October 1929  Page 6 - The World's News (Sydney, NSW)

FIRST "MOVIE"
The first practical camera capable of taking an unlimited number of photographs in rapid sequence upon a band of sensitized celluloid film, and suitable for subsequent reproduction in the form of a moving picture, is said to have been made by Mr W.F. Greene, a London photographer. He took out a patent on June 21, 1889, in conjunction with Mortimer Evans. The traffic at Hyde Park Corner was the subject of the first moving picture, and it was shown to the Royal Photographic Society in 1890.



Wednesday 12th February 1930  Page 15 - Sydney Mail (NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHIC HONOR
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain has conferred a Fellowship on Mr. Spencer Shier, the well-known Melbourne photographer, for an exhibition of photographs held some time ago. This distinction is looked upon as the most treasured possession of the photographers throughout the world and it is pleasing to note that the camera brotherhood in Australia is capable of being included in the charmed circle.

Mr. Spencer Shier was appointed an associate of the Royal Photographic Society last year. He is also president of the Professional Photographers Association of Australia and chairman of the Victorian Salon of Photography. Readers of the "Mail" have his work in front of them occasionally.

MR. SPENCER SHIER

Wednesday 19th February 1930  Page 21 - Sydney Mail (NSW)

FELLOWSHIP
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Concerning the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, one of their number writes his congratulations to a newly - elected Fellow whose honor was noted in the last issue of the 'Mail'. He remarks: "There are quite a number of photographers in Australia and New Zealand who have for many years enjoyed the privilege of using the affix "FRPS". The earliest of these is probably Mr. Walter Burke, of Sydney, who was elected as far back as 1897.

FELLOWSHIP ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
1897 WALTER BURKE Sydney	1902 J.E. MIDDLEBROOK New Zealand	1907 R. THORNE HAINES Sydney	1912 GERALD E. JONES New Zealand	1913 E.F. EDMUNDS Perth	1917 JACK CATO Melbourne	1923 G. CHANCE New Zealand	1927 W.T. OWEN Melbourne	1928 MONTE LUKE Sydney	1930 SPENCER SHIER Melbourne

15th May 1930
Volume 37 Number 5 - Page 241
The Australasian Photographic Review

DUNEDIN PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
NEW ZEALAND
REV. H.O. FENTON
Last year, our London contributor, Rev. Fenton, was again appointed one of the three representatives of the Royal Photographic Society on the Committee of the Affiliation with a mandate to look after the interests of Societies in this part of the world. Under the new system of alliance of practically all the Photographic Federations and Unions, the old Affiliation has merged into the "Central Association”. Before the Council of the Royal Photographic Society met to appoint its delegates, Rev. Fenton was elected by the affiliated clubs on to the Committee of the new body, but we may be quite sure he will still do his best for the clubs overseas.



Monday 20th October 1930  Page 5 - Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES
Mr. H. McBurney a photographic artist well-known right throughout the State, and who is no stranger to Mudgee, arrived in town at the week-end. An enthusiast in his art, he has made a special study of children, and his portfolio contains many beautiful home pictures, which are certain, to find favor with Mudgee parents. His artistry is also evident in panoramic studies of homes and gardens, which are really beautiful. Mr. McBurney, who is a medalist of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, has taken up quarters at Miss Loneragan's Park View boarding house, and will be pleased to make arrangements with those desirous of having photographs taken in the home. He contends (and specimens of his work proves him to be right) that better studies can be obtained in the home than in the studio, particularly where children are concerned.



Friday 16th January 1931  Page 8 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW)

MR. E.J. DANN'S SUCCESS
PHOTOGRAPHY DISTINCTION
Several months ago reference was made to the success of Mr. E.J. Dann, who secured a certificate for some pictorial photographs exhibited at the overseas and colonial competition in the galleries of the Royal Photographic Society in 1929. Later and greater success has been achieved by Mr. Dann, who submitted prints last year to the London Salon, and has just received word that one of the prints was not only accepted and hung, but has received the greatest distinction of all, in being one of about 80 pictorial photographs selected for reproduction in "Photograms of the Year 1930". This publication has been the world's principal record of photographic work for 36 years, and provides the greatest criterion of excellence for all countries. Some thousands of prints are submitted every year for consideration by the juries of distinguished men who select the pictures accepted for hanging at the London Salon (perhaps 200 to 300), and the Royal Photographic Society annual exhibition (about 150 in the pictorial section). These prints are from all over the world and from the successful ones only about 80 are selected for reproduction in "Photograms". The selection is made to typify the best work in the various sections of pictorial photography, and includes nude studies, portraiture, landscape and sea studies, design and certain kinds of "stunt" photography.

The work included in "Photograms" this year was criticized by Mr. C.J. Symes, one of Britain's foremost pictorialists. In referring to Mr. Dann's picture he groups it with several other marine subjects and makes the following comment: "Drying Sails", by E.J. Dann, has points of resemblance, but its chief interest lies in the effect of light on the hull and sails rather than in the grouping of the figures. There is something very intriguing about it".

It is Mr. Dann's custom to exhibit a few of his studies each year at Newcastle Show in the non-competitive section. If space is available, he intends to carry out this practice at the coming show, and will exhibit, among his picture's, a bromoil study of the same subject that was successful in London.

Only two prints from New South Wales achieved the distinction of publication in "Photograms" this year. The other one was a fine study, "The Wheel of Youth", by Harold Cazneaux, which is neither more nor less than an artistic conception of a familiar razzle-dazzle in motion, and is full of life.



Thursday 12th February 1931  Page 6 - Evening News (Sydney, NSW)

SEEING AND KNOWING BEAUTY
HONORS FOR A PRINCESS
Mr. Monte Luke, a Sydney photographer who has had his studies hung in the famous salons of the world, and is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, selected for me several photographs of especial merit. In particular, "Street In Lugano", by H.R.H. Princess Victoria.

"Here", says Mr. Luke, "beauty has been observed as well at delineated. And so many people — Royalties and commoners — pass by beauty without noticing or acknowledging it".

Another Mr. Luke picked out was, "Florence", by Princess Helena of Denmark. Not a mere snap, says Mr. Luke, "but a study expressing beauty of line and particularly happy is the group in the shadow in the foreground.

Honors are awarded Princess Helena again for, "Scotland", "a beautiful study of soft atmosphere. It leaves one with the rest and the peacefulness that the print suggests". This Princess has soared again, according to Mr. Luke, in, "Glucksburg Castle".

Summing up, Mr. Luke declared, discreetly, that many of the subjects were "camera shy" — which awards him the blue ribbon in diplomacy.



14th February 1931  Page 71 - Australasian Photo-Review

Royal Photographic Society
Two Australian names figure in the list of Fellowships just awarded by the Royal Photographic Society. Dr. Julian Smith and Mr. August Knapp are to be congratulated on the Honor conferred on them, especially honorable at a time when admissions to the Fellowship are exceedingly few in comparison to the number of candidates there-for.



Tuesday 7th April 1931  Page 2 - The Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW)
Friday 17th April 1931  Page 12 - Macleay Argus (Kempsey, NSW)

FILM PIONEER
LOUIS LE PRINCE
TABLET UNVEILED
At Leeds (England) recently, the Lord Mayor unveiled a tablet with the following inscription:

Louis Aime Augustin le Prince had a workshop on this site, where he made a one lens camera and with it photographed animated pictures. Some were taken on Leeds Bridge in 1888. He also made a projecting machine and this initiated the art of kinematography. He was assisted by his sons and by Joseph Whitley, James William Longley, and Frederic Mason, of Leeds. This tablet was placed here by public subscription.

Among those present was the inventor's daughter, Miss Mary le Prince, who brought with her from America her father's early apparatus. Those represented at the ceremony included the French Ambassador, the Royal Photographic Society and the Society of Motion Picture Engineers. The Lord Mayor said he did not think they fully realized what le Prince had done for the world. The cinema industry had created an enormous amount of employment. A message sending felicitations was read from the Mayor of Metz, where le Prince was born.

Miss le Prince, speaking to a Press representative, pointed with interest to the width of the film which her father used, double the standard size, and said that her father's experiments in that direction were significant, as the big film companies of to-day were sponsoring the wide film. "My father, too, included sound and color in his early experiments", she went on. "Often he said that the films would talk and have color".

LOUIS AIMÉ AUGUSTIN LE PRINCE

Born 28th August 1841 Metz, France
Disappeared 16th September 1890 (aged 49) Dijon, France

ARTIST, ART TEACHER, INVENTOR

Friday 26th June 1931  Page 8 - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHER'S SUCCESS
Mr E.J. Dann has again placed Newcastle on the map in the photographic sphere by succeeding in London with a photographic study in bromoil of the "Back Road", Jenolan. The occasion was the annual exhibition of overseas and colonial pictorial photographs at the Royal Photographic Society gallery in London. The exhibition was open from May 4 to May 30. There was only room for 152 pictures out of the thousands submitted and the successful prints came from a great variety of places under the British flag. There was a heavy acceptance of pictures by Australians, but the catholic nature of the show induced representation from South Africa, Egypt, Jamaica, India, Singapore, Bermuda, New Zealand, Canada (including British Columbia), East Africa and Tasmania. Mr Dann's son, Mr E.L. Dann, of Kogarah, was also successful in having a picture of mountain scenery amongst the 152 photographs exhibited.



Saturday 12th September 1931  Page 1 - The Sun (Sydney, NSW)
Saturday 19th September 1931  Page 2 - The Farmer and Settler (Sydney, NSW)

AUSTRALIAN CAMERA STUDIES
London, Friday: An Australian, Dr. William Delano Walker, has been awarded the medal of the Royal Photographic Society for a series illustrating the life history of the kangaroo. He also shows interesting studies of aborigines.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Dr Walker, an Australian, arrived in England in the late 1920s. He was a keen photographer earning a medal from the Royal Photographic Society for a series of images of "The Life History of the Kangaroo". He gave lectures in England illustrated with his own lantern slides on various Australian subjects. A Medical Officer in the RAF he died in an aircraft crash in 1938.

Dr Walker and his wife Mollie traveled about 8500 miles across the Australian outback in a Model T Ford in the 1920s. He administered medical treatment in between carrying out his own repairs to the vehicle and documenting his travels taking many photographs of Aborigines, fauna, flora etc.



Wednesday 11th November 1931  Page 6 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

CAMERA PICTURES
THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHY
A striking exhibition of landscape and portrait photographic studies by Mr. Monte Luke is now on view at his studio in the Strand Arcade. A first glance at the walls is revealing. It shows that some of the portraits and most of the landscapes have been produced by a new process in which the sun, as the picture-maker in chief, has had the assistance of a human artist in working up the values, the lovely tones, and "chiaroscuro" effects There is a new photographic process which gives the photographic artist an opportunity of greatly improving upon the work of the camera. It is known technically as the "bromoil and transfer" method. In using this method the photograph of the object after treatment has a sheet of drawing paper superimposed upon it. The photograph and the sheet of drawing paper are put through an etching press with the result that the picture is transferred to the drawing paper, which is then finished off by the artist operator with a brush.

Some very beautiful pictures having much of the quality of etchings, have been created by this method, and are hanging on the walls in Mr. Luke's studio. There are 89 exhibits in all, including portrait studies of Sir Philip Game; General Baden Powell; Prince Gika; who was here during the Eucharistic Congress; Mr. E.T. Fisk, of Australasian Wireless Ltd; Mrs. W.R. Chisholm; Mark Hambourg; and a number of stageland notabilities, including one of Pavlova with a dancing partner, a charming study. Many of these studies have been shown at the exhibitions of the Royal Photographic Society, London. The wonderful effects of light and shade in the landscapes - which are notable for the selective judgment displayed in the choice of subjects - give these studies a real artistic value.

A STUDY IN CURVES - ANOTHER
Royal Photographic Society
PICTURE

15th March 1932  Page 123 - Australasian Photo-Review

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Australian readers will learn with pleasure that the Fellowship has been bestowed on Mr. John B. Eaton and will agree unanimously that the Honor is well deserved.



15th April 1932
Volume 39 Number 4 - Page 189
The Australasian Photographic Review

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
GREAT BRITAIN
The "List for 1932 of the Honorary Fellows, Honorary Members, Fellows, Associates and Members”, makes far more interesting reading than one would think from a casual glance at the title.

All the most fascinating addresses in the world appear here; who, for instance, could fail to make wonderful photographs in such spots as "The Cottage”, Booking, or "Godshillwood”, Fordingbridge? The Society is also fortunate in a wealth of membership in every corner of the globe, from Hollywood to Perak and from Istambul to Valparaiso.

Australian and New Zealand names appear to the number of thirty-six. Amongst the Fellows the name of the Editor of the A.P.-R. appears with twenty-five others who received their Fellowship in 1896 or prior to 1896.

For length of membership the wreath should go to Mr. F. Hollyer, of "Meers Purcel”, Blewbury, Didcot, who was admitted to membership away back in 1865, whilst close on his heels are Mr. Cecil Wray and Mr. Leonard Wray, both of whom joined up in 1872.



Tuesday 21st June 1932  Page 2 - Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW)

THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHY
The science of photography has made immense strides during recent years. The practical application of this method of making pictures may be said to date from the publication in 1839 by the French scene painter Daguerre of his process of taking photographs, the earliest specimens of the new art being called Daguerrotypes after him, though some of the underlying principles were known over a hundred years previously. In 1840 the first photographic picture of the moon was made and four years later it was found possible to make instantaneous pictures, instead of having to take from three to thirty minutes over the business. Since then there has been one advance after another, and photographs can now be taken in colors, while film photography is a commonplace to hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. But the person who takes the picture in the first place is still dependent in large measure on the state of the weather for the best and most satisfactory results. He likes a happy medium, neither too much sun nor too much shade, though even these drawbacks have been overcome to a great extent by the expert in his calling.

An interesting part of the science is long distance photography, but that is out of the question with the average equipment in foggy weather. That particular handicap, which is probably felt more severely in England than in this country with its high average of sunny days, has been greatly minimized if not altogether removed by a recent British invention, by the use of which it was made possible to take a photograph of the French coast from Dover, a distance of over 20 miles across the English Channel, in an atmosphere which made France all but invisible to the eye and the ordinary camera. This picture was published in a recent issue of the "Times", with an explanation in which it is stated that it was taken by a long focus lens, the camera being fitted with an infra-red plate and filter, allowing an image to be photographed through the suspended moisture in the air which prevents the eye from seeing the object. The direction of the camera, had to be worked out by compass, owing to the misty condition of the air.

In an explanatory article it is stated that one of the reasons why it is impossible to see far in misty or hazy weather is because the moisture in the air scatters the light, red light being scattered less than blue. The problem then is how to use the infra-red light in the atmosphere and exclude all other light, this being achieved by a so-called-filter, or suitably dyed piece of gelatine, placed in front of the lens, which allows only infra-red rays to penetrate and carry the image to the photographic plate. The only drawback to the new process is that the appearance of a landscape is altered to the eye, plots of grass and greenery coming out white; but the outlines are very clear and true. The new process will no doubt prove extremely valuable in exploration and warfare. But the new photography can reveal not only things at a distance hidden by fog or mist, but things close at hand enshrouded in darkness. A recent London cable message states that Scotland Yard experts are experimenting with a new method of photography by means of which perfect pictures can be taken in the dark. The inventor, who is the president of the Royal Photographic Society, claims that his process will enable pictures to be taken of burglars cracking a safe in complete darkness and to be shown clearly in court the next day. The process is also said to reveal erasures in ink writing on cheques and other important documents, to show up secret writing, and to do other remarkable things of great value in the detection of crime, this process being also based on the use of the infra-red rays, which are invisible to the eye, but act on a specially prepared photographic plate. Truly the way of the transgressor is being made harder every day by the advance of science - that science which at the same time has added so greatly to the comforts and conveniences of life, and which has widened the extent of our knowledge to such a degree that some of its greatest marvels are accepted as everyday matters, and the people who see them in operation hardly realize the close study and research which has gone to the making of them.



Sunday 30th October 1932  Page 5 - The Sun (Sydney, NSW)

WONDERS OF THE INFRA-RED RAY
By ROBERT CLELAND
DON'T touch that kettle! Can't you see it's hot? Well, hardly, and yet who can say that some day it will not be possible to see whether an article is hot with the aid of special infra-red glasses?

With the new infra-red plate recently perfected by the Ilford Co. in England, some remarkable feats of photography have been performed. During the course of a lecture delivered to the Royal Photographic Society, the audience were photographed in total darkness, with the sole aid of these infra-red rays, which are the totally invisible heat rays of the spectrum. This certainly proves that although we cannot yet see the heat rays emanating from an object, they can now be photographed.

What are these infra-red heat rays? Nearly every person has seen the spectrum in the form of a rainbow, and knows of the invisible ultra violet rays, with their remarkable health-giving and sun-tanning properties. Just as these rays are beyond the visible violet end of the spectrum, infra-red rays are beyond the visible red end, and are similarly of wave-lengths which the eye cannot see.

There is nothing unusual in this. Certain sound vibrations are too low and too high for the ear to hear. This has been proved by observers studying certain birds whistling up the scale. Long after the notes are heard the birds can be seen whistling still higher notes.

BLACK IS WHITE
Now that experiments have proved that heat absorption and reflection can be photographed, some remarkable possibilities are opened up in matters of every-day consideration. Six different pieces of black material photographed by infra-red plates recorded different densities, ranging from black to white, proving that certain black materials could be equally as cool as white materials.

What a boon this will prove to the man who must wear dark colored suitings in summer weather. No need for him to walk around scorching. The tailor's chart may show him dark suitings, nearly as cool as white duck.

The Strathnaver and Strathaird were painted white to lower the tropical temperature by 4 degrees. If the shipbuilders had taken advantage of the infra-red plate, some other color possibly cooler may have been discovered.

No wonder it is so cool and fresh under the shade of a tree in hot weather. Photographed with the infra-red plate, trees are snow white. Every bit of heat is reflected, and the trees are as cool as is possible for anything to be under a merciless sun.

SEE THROUGH WALLS
The criminal of the future will have to beware as he starts, to try the combination of the safe. Infra-red rays will be switched on simultaneously with motion picture cameras, and the police will have a Hollywood record of the offender, caught red-handed on the job.

The wide-awake gangster will have to be very much awake to disguise characteristics that are totally invisible to the naked eye, and are only revealed to the police photographer with his infra-red plate.

The infra-red plate can still do something else besides photograph heat. It can peer through thick fogs that are walls of invisibility to the naked eye, and the warring nations of the future will not be slow in taking advantage of this remarkable feature.

The reason for this is that moisture particles disperse visible light, and every motorist who has driven through a thick fog realizes the impotency of headlights that are reflected back on him. In fact, some of the most recent British cars have a fog-piercing light fitted, in addition to the normal headlights. The beam from this light is of a distinct orange shade, the color least reflected by fog, and so far the nearest visible approach to the invisible infra-red.

It is interesting to note that the State Governor's car is one of the few cars in Sydney, fitted with one of these special fog-piercing lights.



Sunday 8th January 1933  Page 9 - The Sun (Sydney, NSW)
Thursday 19th January 1933  Page 1 - Jerilderie Herald and Urana Advertiser (NSW)

AN EYE THAT SEES THROUGH THE FOG AND DARK
DISEASES SEEN UNDER SKIN
NIGHT NO LONGER A COVER
Science's latest marvel, the infra-red camera, is really a means of seeing the unseen. Recently "The Sunday Sun" told how this magic eye photographs objects hundreds of miles away, how it takes clear pictures in fog and in what is apparently pitch dark, and how it shows the heat-resisting qualities of various cloths.

Mr. Ritchie Calder, writing in the London "Daily Herald", explains a few more of the achievements of this marvel.

Early experiments, he points out, showed a clean-shaven man with a beard and moustache.

Since it was possible to discover the hair under the skin, the scientists thought that it would be possible to find the rash of infectious diseases before it appeared. By infra-red photographs they have discovered measles three days before it appeared. The value of that in early diagnosis is obvious.

The infra-red plate has opened up a vast new field in spectacular photography.

The camera will now be able to see through fog at sea, and experiments are now being carried out on behalf of the Admiralty to enable ships, by means of a rapid succession of photographs, printed within a minute and a half, to "see" far into the fog and so avoid collisions and increase their speed.

Its use in war — the first thing which seems to suggest itself to some people still — seems evident, since it should be possible to photograph the details of an enemy position from beyond even the reach of long-range guns, or even from (although old soldiers may doubt it) the safe distance of G.H.Q.

All that is necessary to protect a position, however, is a thin cloud of soot.

Photography in the dark has become commonplace with the new plates. Mr. Olaf Bloch has photographed, with two seconds exposure, a meeting of the Royal Photographic Society, with effects better than flashlight, with only three infra lamps burning, giving the effect, in the hall, of darkness.

More wonderful still, he has made an excellent photographic study of a cup in which the only "light" was from a domestic flat-iron which was not even red-hot.

That could be applied directly in crime detection. If a burglar entered a room which was completely dark (at least he would be quite unconscious of the infra-red light which was being reflected back at him from the walls), a silent cinema camera with the film coated with the infrared sensitizing might be running, and before he left a complete cinematograph record of his movements would be made.

Spiritualists are taking it up. In psychic research you can have it either way — if it is used at a darkened seance it will reveal either trickery or the psychic phenomenon. Those psychic research workers who are using it are preparing to film a seance and believe that the spirits which resent ordinary light may appear in the infra-red photographs.



Saturday 28th January 1933  Page 2 - Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW)
Saturday 28th January 1933  Page 2 - Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga, NSW)
Thursday 2nd March 1933  Page 12 - The Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW)

BEGINNINGS OF THE FILM
Much interest was taken in an exhibition of Cinematography at the Royal Photographic Society Gallery in Russel Square, London.

The exhibition falls into three sections — historical, modern, and a collection of "stills", and it is to the historical section writes a representative of the "Observer") to, which one returns more frequently. It is held that a paper read by Dr. Peter Mark Roget before the Royal Society in, 1825 was the real beginning of the moving picture; and here we have the doctor's portrait and the volume of the transactions in which his paper appeared. It is entitled "Optical deception in the appearance of the spokes of a wheel seen through vertical apertures"; and it is said that two men went home from the lecture with ideas that afterward bore fruit in elaborate "scopes", the parents of the cinematograph.

They are odd machines all of them. There are wheels that spin slides so that a magic lantern shows figures that move; and there are all sorts of toys dependent on a moving paper band of figures which, being seen through a peephole or caught ingeniously in a mirror, produce the effect of a jerky film. It is clear enough that all that is wanting is the marriage of these two ideas to produce the film as we know it. When the idea at last emerges it is sad that all these fascinating toys should think it time to disappear. Perhaps the key exhibit is the piece of paper film made by W. Friese-Greene in 1885. The inventor made his positive on a band of paper and immersed it in castor oil to render it transparent. By its side is the first celluloid film - a scene "shot" at Hyde Park corner by Friese-Greene in 1889. The first cinema show in London was Lumiere's, at the Empire in 1896. Here is its apparatus, its bill and the notices in the papers.



Friday 15th September 1933  Page 15 - The Sun (Sydney, NSW)

CHOSEN PICTURES
AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHS ON SHOW
("SUN" SPECIAL)
LONDON, Thursday.
Seven Australians are among the 300 world-wide exhibitors at the Royal Photographic Society exhibition.

Julian Smith (Melbourne) shows two, including a fine portrait of a pioneer; John Eaton, (Toorak), two landscapes; H.S. Lucraft (Perth), two; Mr. August Knapp (Perth), and R.V. Simpson (Sydney), one each.

The London Salon displays 11 Australian works among the 404 chosen from 4500 submitted by 24 countries. John Eaton has four, Julian Smith three, Harold Cazneaux two, Monte Luke one, and A.L. Smith one.



Friday 15th September 1933
Page 7 - AUCKLAND STAR, VOLUME LXIV, ISSUE 218
Page 5 - HOROWHENUA CHRONICLE

PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
NEW ZEALAND EXHIBITORS
LONDON", September 14.
Exhibitors at the Royal Photographic Society include the New Zealanders, Mr. W.G. Davies (seven) and Mr. Ellis Dungeon (one) photographs respectively.



Saturday 16th September 1933  Page 9 - Northern Star (Lismore, NSW)

AUSTRALIAN EXHIBITORS
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
LONDON, Thursday.
Mr C.S. Tompkins, of Camberwell, New South Wales, is one of the seven Australians included in the 300 exhibitors from throughout the world represented at the Royal Photographic Society exhibition. His studies are three natural history subjects.

The London Salon displays 11 Australian works among the 404 chosen from 4500 submitted from 24 countries. They include one by Harold Cazneaux, of Roseville and two by Monte Luke, of Sydney.



Saturday 16th September 1933  Page 15 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHIC ART
AUSTRALIAN EXHIBITORS
LONDON, September, 14.
Seven Australians are among the 300 photographers in all parts of the world represented at the Royal Photographic Society exhibition.

Dr. Julian Smith, of Melbourne, has a pair of photographs, one of which is a fine portrait of a pioneer; Mr. John Eaton, of Toorak (Victoria), has two landscapes; Mr. H.S. Lucraft, of Perth, has two pictures, one of which is an effective child study.

Other Australian exhibitors are: Messrs. A. Knapp (Perth), R.V. Simpson (Sydney), C.S. Tompkins (Melbourne), and H. Chargois (Cairns).

The London Salon displays 11 Australian works. Among the 404 photographs chosen from 4500 submitted, from 24 countries, are four by Mr. John Eaton, three by Dr. Julian Smith, two by Mr. Harold Cazneaux, one by Mr. Monte Luke, and one by Mr. A.L. Smith.



Saturday 30th November 1935  Page 7 - The Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate (NSW)

CAMERA'S ONE HUNDRED YEARS
FOX TALBOT AND HIS WORK
It is 100 years since William Fox Talbot began those experiments which made possible photography as we know it to-day. For five years he worked on, experimenting with washes of silver nitrate and salt, until in January, 1839, he was so confident of his new process that he announced it to the world.

Fox Talbot was born at Lacock Abbey in 1800, and members of the Royal Photographic Society have been visiting this beautiful building by the Avon in Wiltshire in memory of the brilliant scientist and his work there. Perhaps the beauty of its ivy-clad tower inspired him to make records of it which he could send to his friends.

As a scientist he had some knowledge of the experiments of De Niepce and Daguerre in France, who had succeeded in securing photographs on prepared plates, but Talbot's triumph lay in the fact that his photographs could be duplicated in the form of prints. He took his photographs on specially prepared paper which was then fixed by gallo-nitrate of silver and treated with a solution of potassium bromide.

Light would shine through this, so that by placing a second sheet of prepared paper, exposing them both for a few minutes to light he was able to obtain a duplicate.

He thus established the new science as a commercial proposition. After this he made important discoveries, and published in serial form between 1844 and 1866 the first book illustrated entirely by photographs. Though he patented his inventions he gave most of them to the world.

Many of the leading men of science would gather round him in his lovely Wiltshire home and here they would meet Tom Moore, so full of life and humor and anecdote and song.

Fox Talbot received international honors for his work, being presented with a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. He died in 1877, having lived to see his great work serving mankind all over the world, giving men a new and perpetual source of education and delight.

WILLIAM HENRY FOX TALBOT

Born 11th February 1800, Melbury, Dorset, England
Died 17th September 1877 (aged 77) Lacock, Wiltshire, England

WILLIAM HENRY FOX TALBOT SCIENTIST AND INVENTOR Known for Pioneering photography

SPOUSE Constance Talbot (nee MUNDY)

CHILDREN Ela (1835–1893) Rosamond (1837–1906) Matilda (1839–1927) Charles (1842–1916)

PARENTS William Davenport Talbot Elisabeth Fox Strangways

AWARDS Royal Medal (1838) Rumford Medal (1842)

Thursday 23rd January 1936  Page 3 - The Queenslander (Brisbane QLD)

Mr. H.A. Snape, of Brisbane, has received advice from the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain that he has been admitted to Associateship of the society. Mr. Snape has been studying the science and practice of photography all his life and has exhibited to leading International salons for a number of years. He has received gold, silver and bronze medals and is well known internationally by his pictorial photography. He has given lectures over the air from 4QG and at several schools. At present he is demonstrator for Kodak, Ltd.



Wednesday 17th June 1936  Page 49 - Sydney Mail (NSW)

NOTABLE PHOTOGRAPHER
ONE of the oldest established photographers in North Queensland, Mr. H. Chargois, of Cairns, was made an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain in recognition of his consistent success in London and leading international exhibitions over a period of several years. Recently this distinction was added to by his being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. This society was founded in 1754, and is pre-dated only by the Royal Society and the Society of Antiques. Among its fellows are some of the leading artists, statesmen, and authors in the Empire.



Wednesday 2nd September 1936  Page 5 - The World's News (Sydney, NSW)

AUSTRALIAN FATHER of TALKIES and TECHNICOLOR
PEOPLE TALKED ABOUT
WE are so accustomed to attributing everything connected with motion pictures to an American source that it comes a surprise to learn that at least two of the most important innovations had their origin and preliminary development in Australia. These are "talkies" and "Technicolor".

We have with us in Sydney to-day Robert Thorn Haines FRPS, to whom was granted Patent No. 18,057, and, in the words of Dr. W. Clark, head of Kodak, Ltd., Research Laboratory, Middlesex, England, "I personally have always regarded this as the master patent for present-day methods of making sound films. I think due recognition is given both in this country (England) and in the United States to this patent".

The earliest attempts at talking pictures exhibited in Sydney were those depicting Harry Lauder singing his well known songs. The results were not very satisfactory. In this case a gramophone record was first made of Harry Lauder singing the song, and then he was photographed singing the song, the record being played while he did so, in an attempt to synchronize the two records. The result in the theatre was often marred by the operator running his machine faster or slower than the record was played, and, consequently, the words were heard either before or after the lip movement had pronounced them. After the novelty had worn off, no further attempts were made to produce "talking and singing pictures".

Robert Thorn Haines worked on the possibility of transposing sound vibrations into light vibrations, and recording them photographically reproduced on the screen, the light vibrations were transposed back again to sound vibrations, and by this means the words of song and dialog and sounds were faithfully reproduced in perfect unity. After initial experiments, demonstrating the possibilities of the idea, Mr. Haines came to the end of his finances and was compelled to look for assistance. In 1905 he placed the invention under offer to a Melbourne company, who, while admitting the success of the demonstrations, eventually turned the offer down as being of doubtful value financially.

The year 1905 was somewhat early in the history of the "movies", and so commenced a heart-breaking search for finance. Sir Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, became interested - then turned the talkie project down. Next came Lord Fitzjames, and all seemed well, but, alas for the hopes of the inventor, Lord Fitzjames died suddenly three days after he had agreed to support the invention. Then Mr. Parr, of Parr and Co., a well-known finance company, took it up and all preparations were completed for manufacture when Parr and Co. unexpectedly went into liquidation. Thoroughly disheartened, Mr. Haines, returned to Australia. During his stay in London Mr. Haines read a paper before the Royal Photographic Society of London on color as applied to cinematography. Early in the 1900's he was impressed by an optical illusion, whereby a rapid succession of still photographs projected on to a screen appeared to be a moving picture. He figured that a similar optical illusion could be utilized to add color to the picture. Many still photos in color had been made by what is known as the "three color process", whereby three separate shots were taken through color filters, one recording all the yellows in the subject, a second recording the reds, and a third recording the blues. This method was too cumbersome and lengthy to apply to "movies". Mr. Haines's idea was to mix the blue and yellow together, producing green, and with two colors only, red and green, alternately photographed on a band of film, rely on the optical illusion that would fuse them into a natural colored whole when projected on the screen. Urban and Smith, of London, took up the idea and evolved Kinema-color. These pictures were a great success, and had an unprecedented run at the Scala Theatre, London. The method was still a trifle cumbersome for modern movies, and had some small drawbacks. During 1915 two Mexican cinematographers, still following R.T. Haines's principles, brought out Technicolor. This used the two colors, red and green, but, instead of having to double the length of film by using the colors alternately, they used the original film length and got the color effect by using film treated on both sides, one side carrying the red impression and the other the green. Of the many examples seen in Sydney, the most successful, perhaps, were "Sally" and "Whoopee".

R.T. Haines's dream of perfection, as expressed to the writer twenty-five years ago, was flickerless, colored, stereoscopic talking pictures that would enable grand opera, musical comedy, etc., to be projected on the screen exactly as if viewing flesh-and-blood performances. He has lived to see the talking and color brought almost to perfection, and has the satisfaction of knowing they were based on his own original experiments. It may be a poor sort of satisfaction, seeing that all his money went out in those early attempts, and others have reaped the rewards. Will his other early experiments in stereoscopic projection bear fruit? I venture to predict they will.



Thursday 5th November 1936  Page 5 - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW)

PHOTONEWS

BATHTIME FOR BEULAH
A study in satisfaction exhibited at the
Royal Photographic Society
exhibition at Russell Square, London.

Wednesday 10th March 1937  Page 11 - Sydney Mail (NSW)

AUSTRALIA'S CHARM IN COLOR AND SOUND
"I came here for color, and I've got color", said Len H. Roos, noted cameraman from Hollywood.

He was filming a score of our taxis specially engaged for the "take". Past the camera went all colors of the rainbow. Shots such as these, depicting scenes of our everyday life in Sydney, will be among hundreds of highlights in color films for world-wide distribution.

It is in the grandeur of Mount Kosciusko, our harbour scenes, the Jenolan Caves, the Blue Mountains, the surf beaches with the life-savers, and in the fauna and flora of Australia that the color and glory of this great country will emerge in beauty on the screen.

Mr. Roos, Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and cinematographer from Warner Bros., Hollywood, has found much to photograph. He speaks of us as he finds us, and here are some of his opinions.

Our girls, he says, are pretty and excellent models for photographing. They are not "made up" with beauty preparations to such an extent as the girls of Europe and America. Our harbour is beautiful, but "the bridge spoils the harbour".

He finds it hard to imagine that there are seventeen times as many sheep and twice as many cattle as people in this country. He finds the rapid development of our continent a fascinating story. The acute contrast between the bustling and closely packed cities and the great open areas outback are, to him, of great interest.

Our birds, complete with sound-track recordings, have been "shot". The lovable koala bears, the moles, wombats, cockatoos and kookaburras, bandicoots, native spotted cats, and the mysterious platypus have all been intriguing subjects for the camera. Emus and kangaroos and dingoes have been photographed, in some cases with the accompanying sound.

These pictures, undeveloped, are hurried back to America, where, to a suitable musical background of an Australian composition, they are put into world distribution. This necessitates the films being produced in several different languages for world audiences.

Mr. Roos has had many exciting adventures when taking pictures. Climbing on to skyscraper roofs and dropping in parachutes was all in the day's work when he was a newsreel cameraman in America, and the experience is valuable to him now. In the old days, he said, the motion picture industry used to look for a cameraman with a "camera eye". Now, however, the demand is for "the eye for color and ear for sound", as well as the ability to see a good picture. Thousands of pounds of valuable film would be ruined if an operator were not an expert. Out of the 8000ft he has shot in Australia only about 2000ft will be used. It is always the practice to take more than is required, in order to give a field for selection.

Mr. Roos travels by air whenever possible. He often leaves New York at 8pm and arrives at his home at Burbank, California, at 10am next morning. "It would take four days in the train", he said. Since last June he has filmed scenes in parts of Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Holland, France, Switzerland, and French Morocco. Nor is that list a complete record. He carries an international motor-driver's license and a fire, police, and press pass. He considers he has been kindly received and helped in Australia, but like W. Robert Moore, who wrote so well of our country in the "National Geographic", he is nonplussed at being taxed on his color film, and says we are the only nation to impose unreasonable primage charges and Customs duties.

As I said, Mr. Roos has had a wealth of experience. Here are three. Speeding up to northern Norway in a big plane, complete with pontoons for landing on water, and "de-icers" (novel appliances which pulsate with a mixture of glycerine and oil on the wing flaps, to prevent ice forming on the tops of the wings), Mr. Roos recently traveled to Lapland. I asked him if he had had any amusing experiences with the Lapps. On this visit he thought it absolutely necessary to take with him two interpreters. Then, one day, quite unconcernedly one of the Lapp actors yelled out to Roos; "Say, Boss, could you change a fiver?" After that the interpreters had an easy job, for Roos discovered the Lapps spoke English almost as well as their own tongue.

He had an amazing, dangerous, and exciting adventure quite recently in New Zealand. He and a pilot took off from Christchurch and ran into shocking weather near Mount Cook. They took one hour and forty minutes to reach the mountain-side, and only forty minutes to get back to Christchurch. Next morning they arrived at the aerodrome at 7.30am, but it was 3pm before they could get off. They rose to 12,000ft and tried to fly over the mountain, but the wind backed the plane off every time she tried to climb. The pilot then tried to fly round it. By going down into the valley they made a makeshift aerodrome at The Hermitage. They rose again into the air and got shots of the side of the mountain's peak. Mr. Roos had the door of the plane wide open, pointing the camera through the door. A tremendous heave sideways almost hurled both cameraman and camera right out of the plane. Roos was able to close the door, the camera fell on top of him, and from 10,000ft the plane dived head- long to 4000ft into the valley below. Those awful few moments are the worst Mr. Roos has experienced, and he is ever thankful the pilot righted the plane at 4000ft.

Mr. Roos recently exhibited 30ft of "trick" film in London. This exhibit, which bristled with technical difficulties, had been nine times exposed during its processing. Trick photographs are never used in travel pictures. Mr. Roos has produced pictures which will enthral the people abroad with the beauty of Australia. It makes one proud to be an Australian to see them.

LEN H. ROOS
Hollywood Cameraman, Looks at Sydney

Thursday 29th April 1937  Page 8 - Yass Tribune-Courier (NSW)

EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS
Some of the earliest and most important instruments in the history of photography have just been acquired by the London Science Museum on loan from the Royal Photographic Society. They include three instruments used by Fox Talbot, the inventor of the first paper photographic process. These are a camera lucida, the first of which on the shores of Lake Como in 1833 first suggested to him that the invention of a sensitive paper would record such scenes more perfectly that sketches made by hand (this is the instrument mentioned in his "Pencil of Nature", published in 1844): Fox Talbot's solar microscope, with which the earliest photomicrographs on paper were produced, and a Culpeper type microscope of about 1820.



Saturday 15th January 1938  Page 2 - The Sun (Sydney, NSW)

UNIVERSITY IN PAGEANT
PHOTO EXHIBITION FROM BRITAIN
A figure on horseback, bearing the academic mace, will lead a group of marchers, carrying faculty banners, before the University float in the Anniversary Pageant.

The second preliminary event of the celebrations will be the photographic exhibition, to be open from Monday next till January 28 (noon to 5.30pm) at the Commonwealth Bank Building, Martin-place.

This will be the first occasion on which a pictorial section of the Royal Photographic Society, London, has been sent to Australia, and the second time that such a section has been displayed outside Great Britain. There are 232 exhibits.

This loan exhibition will be held in conjunction with the twelfth Kodak International Salon of Photography.



Saturday 15th January 1938  Page 18 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION
The Royal Photographic Society Exhibition will be opened at 1.30pm on Monday in the Commonwealth Bank Building, Martin Place, Sydney There will be 232 exhibits in the exhibition which is, in effect, the full pictorial section of the Royal Photographic Society 1937 annual exhibition.

The exhibition which will be held in conjunction with the 12th Kodak International Salon of Photography, will be open free to the public each day from noon to 5.30pm, from January 17 to January 28.



Tuesday 18th January 1938
Page 9 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)
Page 4 - The Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW)

SYDNEY EXHIBITION
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
SYDNEY, Monday.
The second preliminary event on the program for Australia's 150th anniversary celebrations, the Royal Photographic Society exhibition, was opened to-day. There were 232 exhibits. It was in effect the full pictorial section of the society's 1937 annual exhibition.

It is the first occasion on which a pictorial section of the society has come to Australia and only the second time that it had been displayed outside Great Britain. Previously it had been shown in America.



Tuesday 18th January 1938  Page 7 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHS
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION
A FINE DISPLAY
Exhibitions of photographs are steadily growing more numerous. They are also growing larger, more elaborate and fuller of variety and interest. The personal touch has come into photography, as into the graphic arts.

Of all the assemblages of camera-studies that have appeared in Sydney so far, the present one in the sub-basement of the Commonwealth Bank is by far the most imposing. One section consists of pictures on loan from the Royal Photographic Society. The rest embodies the twelfth Kodak International Salon of Photography. There are 577 pictures in all.

EVIDENCE OF RESOURCE
A feature of the show which quickly attracts attention is the immense resourcefulness of the present-day photographer. To suit various subjects, he can completely change the mood and the technical treatment. This it is which brings his work close to that of the painter.

In fact, a number of the pictures on the walls bring the canvases of well-known artists definitely to mind. In "Stallion", there are eschees of A.J. Munnings and his studies of English horse-fairs. The bleak landscape of "From the Col d'Azet", suggests Sir D.Y. Cameron. In "Sunlit Rain", one sees the light-drenched impressionism of Claude Monet. In "Mattutino", the formal design of Hobbema's. "The Avenue" and in "Fothingay Church", the cool interior lighting of Pieter de Hooch; while "Song of the Pick", with its row of muscular workers, might be a more florid Millet.

In many instances, some characteristic subject calls up the parallel; but the temperament behind the picture has something to do with it, too. Often the photographer and the painter concerned are of different nationalities. That goes to show what an international business modern photography really is. There do not seem to be national schools of photography, as there are national schools of painting.

GOOD PORTRAITS
Some of the portraits in the exhibition are particularly strong and full of character. Other photographs pass across from purely pictorial into literary or philosophic interest. "Micromegas", for example, shows a huge bust of Voltaire smiling down at a tiny bourgeois figure. In "Abel", a full-length figure has above it the ghost of an enormous, staring, haggard face.

Altogether this collection of photographs is as lively and as stimulating a series as anyone could wish to see. It will be open each afternoon until January 28.



Tuesday 18th January 1938  Page 4 - The Labor Daily (Sydney, NSW)

EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHY
PART OF CELEBRATIONS PROGRAM
The 1937 Loan Exhibition of Pictorial Photography and the twelfth Kodak International Salon of Photography, which are one of the official functions of Australia's 150th Anniversary Celebrations, was opened in the sub-basement of the Commonwealth Bank yesterday afternoon, and attracted many visitors. The exhibition will be continued daily until January 28, from noon till 5.30pm.

The exhibition, which has been inaugurated by the Photographic Society of New South Wales, in association with Kodak (Australia) Ltd., is one of the finest displays staged in Sydney, and includes the work of well-known artists from all countries of the world.

A special feature of the exhibition is the superb daylight lighting effects which have been carried out by Turner Coffey Proprietary Ltd., Asbestos House, under the capable supervision of Mr. G.M. Anderson.



Sunday 23rd January 1938  Page 13 - The Sun (Sydney, NSW)

FINE DISPLAY OF CAMERA PICTURES
The Royal Photographic Society exhibits (of 1937), with a collection of International and Australian camera craft, are being shown in the subbasement of the Commonwealth Bank. The professional and the amateur will find no end of interest in this array of subjects and manipulations. The exhibition is a worthy feature of the 150th Anniversary celebrations.



Tuesday 25th January 1938  Page 6 - The Labor Daily (Sydney, NSW)

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain's loan exhibition of pictorial photography at the Commonwealth Bank will be open to-morrow from 2.30pm to 9.30pm, on Thursday and Friday from 10am to 9.30pm.



Saturday 29th January 1938  Page 10 - The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW)

Mr. Harold Cazneaux, the photographer, has received a letter from the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, conferring on him the honorary fellowship of the society (Hon.FRPS). Similar honors, the letter states, have been conferred on photographers in Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa, to mark the year of the coronation of King George VI.



26th March 1938  Page 7 - The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW)

ART OF THE CAMERA

IT'S AMAZING GROWTH

HAROLD CAZNEAUX

The photographic art in Australia is comparatively young, but it has made remarkable progress and is destined to achieve much greater distinction. Until a few years ago Australia was practically unknown in the photographic world, but to-day, at the time of our 150th Anniversary, the work of Australians is recognized in all the noted salons overseas. The Photographic Society of New South Wales, in association with the Sydney Camera Circle and the Professional Photographers Association of New South Wales, has organized the Commemorative Salon of Photography, which is now open in the gallery of the Commonwealth Bank building. This important salon, which is officially recognized by the Anniversary Celebrations Council, includes examples of photographic art by amateur and professional workers from all over the world and illustrates the tremendous advance which photography has made. The beauty of the pictures and the wide range of subject matter render the exhibition of unique interest to the public.

THE VELVET COAT
Photography had not been invented when Governor Phillip landed at Sydney Cove. It is a little over 100 years ago since Daguerre and Fox Talbot worked out the difficult experiments which led to the discovery of photography. The real development of photography occurred only in our parents day and there are many old but well-preserved "Daguerreotypes" and even old silver prints still in existence which belonged to them. There came a change-over from the "wet plate" to the "dry plate" and the old and cumbersome process slowly gave way to the new and lighter method. Studios were opened in greater numbers in the cities and spread to country towns. The photographer, garbed in his velvet coat and perhaps a velvet cap was a personage in those days. He worked "by appointment only" and his studio bore the appearance of "back stage" of the old-time theatre, for he had to supply the accessories for his sitters — backgrounds that would provide interiors of mansions, churches, seaside scenes and landscapes. His stock-in-trade included fake terraces, staircases, ship's masts, boats, elaborate furniture and huge clam shells for the baby. Some possessed stuffed birds and animals and children were often specially dressed up to fit in with the photographer's ponderous accessories. All this passed away. The accessories and velvet coats were sold as junk, heavy cameras and huge old-fashioned lenses were bundled out of the way and a newer era was ushered in. Young Australians got hold of newer cameras, lighter and more efficient lenses and simpler studio equipment. Electric light appeared and daylight was considered out of date. The photographer to-day works in a modern studio, he takes your portrait while you are chatting to him, he touches buttons and switches and lights appear from all angles of his studio and he uses thin sensitive films instead of heavy glass plates. Australia is up to date in photographic matters, although it must still rely upon world centers for high-grade cameras and equipment. For many years, however, quality sensitive film, plates printing papers and much other photographic material have been manufactured in Victoria and New South Wales and eventually we may hope to produce cameras, lenses and other delicate equipment.

AUSTRALIANS FINE WORK
Australia has photographers whose work compares very favorably with that done overseas. It is being accepted and hung in the noted salons of the world, such as the annual show of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and the London Salon of Photography and many foreign salons exhibit Australian pictorial photographs, which become a splendid advertisement for this country. The amateur photographer has been responsible for a great deal of the progress of artistic photography in Australia. His independent and individual outlook has enabled him to produce pictures without thought of sales and much of the artistic quality apparent in to-day's photography has developed from the amateur's sound and natural outlook. We have throughout Australia many amateur photographic clubs and societies who work purely for the love of advancing artistic photography. The Photographic Society of New South Wales, which is affiliated with the Royal Society, was founded over 40 years ago and it continues its good work. Photography is one of the world’s great hobbies and our workers have shared in the international interchange of the best examples of pictorial art. Commercial and advertising photography, like press photography has undergone a transformation and the old-time inartistic type of cameraman has no value to-day. The new work is exacting and only men and women of the highest artistic ability and photographic technique can hope to succeed.

Photography for the million is a great teacher it compels attention to detail, develops the powers of observation, imagination and patience and brings out latent artistic talent. Above all, it encourages a love of our great Australian outdoors. Whatever is spent on photography as a hobby is returned to the discriminating user tenfold. A remarkable fact about photography is that while it is capable of being employed by scientists for record and other work, the artist, using the same materials, can produce a picture which will portray a subject arranged with pleasing composition and rendered in beautiful tonal quality, a picture which can be justly looked upon as a work of art. Critics who say that photography is only a mechanical means of producing a picture know little of artistic photographic technique. A first-class photographer who possesses depth of feeling, an eye for artistic selection and a creative mind can give lasting joy to the beholder of his work and elevate photography to the realm of true art.



Friday 8th April 1938  Page 31 - Albury Banner and Wodonga Express (Sydney, NSW)

NATION OF SNAPPERS
Since the early days of time-exposures and the dark room, the popularity of taking photographs has grown to colossal dimensions. England alone has 5,000,000 amateur photographers. On the more serious side, newspaper illustrations, documentary films, postage stamps, all draw largely on photography, and the Royal Photographic Society possesses its own museum, library, exhibition, lecture and cinema halls, as well as a unique collection of actual photographs of outstanding quality and interest.

Owing to the London University Extension scheme the society's headquarters in Russell Square have to be vacated shortly, and new premises have been offered at 16, Princes Gate, Kensington. Dr. D.A. Spencer, the president of the society, in appealing for funds for the erection of a building worthy of the art, said that if every amateur photographer contributed the humble sum of twopence the society's position would be assured. "Snap to it!" should be the appeal secretary's slogan.



Thursday 5th May 1938  Page 1 - Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW)

£100 GIFT TO ART GALLERY
MORE PRINTS TO BE PURCHASED
A generous grant of £100 has been made to the Broken Hill Art Gallery by the Mining Managers Association, and it is intended to use the money to obtain exhibitions of work by leading Australian artists, and also to purchase prints of famous art works.

It is intended to procure eleven color prints of famous works, mainly representative of modern art, said the chairman of the Broken Hill Art Gallery and Museum Advisory Committee (Mr. T. Howard) to-day.

These will replace some of the older prints on the right-hand wall of the gallery, which are scarcely up to the standard required for an art gallery, said Mr. Howard. About £50 is being spent in the purchase of prints, and it has been decided to purchase the following pictures: "Lamorna Cove" (Dame Laura Knight), "Summer on the Adria" (Wolf Bloem), "The Tea Merchants" (Brangwyn), "Fisherman on the Seine" (Monet), "Kitchen Garden" (Van Gogh), "Repetition of the Dance" (Degas), "Tahitian Mountains" (Gauguin), "Cornwall's Pageantry" (Lamorna Birch), "Water Carrier" (Goya), "Port at Croisie" (Chauler), and "Landscape with Bridge" (Van Gogh).

The committee is at present negotiating with Kodak (Australia) Ltd., for an exhibition of photographs of high artistic merit. It may be possible to obtain some of the photographs recently exhibited in the capital cities by the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.

WORK EXHIBITIONS
Three well-known Melbourne artists have also been approached with a view to obtaining exhibitions of their work and that of their students. The 12 pictures on loan from the Sydney Art Gallery will soon have to be returned and another consignment will be obtained to replace them. It is hoped also to have another exhibition of poster work by the art students of the East Sydney Technical College on similar lines to that of last year.

Mr. J.C. Goodhart, a member of the advisory committee, is at present residing at Victor Harbor, and it is impossible for him to attend meetings regularly. The headmaster of the Central School (Mr. O. Taylor) was appointed to the committee at the last meeting of the City Council, but it was decided to retain Mr. Goodhart's services on the committee in view of his fine work in the past. Mr. Taylor is keenly interested in art work.



Monday 23rd May 1938  Page 4 - The Grenfell Record and Lachlan District Advertiser (NSW)

PRYING CAMERAS
The camera, which has conferred inestimable benefits on mankind, is being condemned as the instrument of one serious breach of good taste. Several prominent public men have protested against cameras in ambush at public banquets. The gist of the protests is that it is hitting below the belt to snap an unsuspecting guest when he is eating spaghetti, or some equally picturesque and difficult dish, and publish the picture in the newspapers.

Mr. Winston Churchill in a letter to "The Times" calls on the organizers of banquets to recognize their duty to their guests by protecting them from these prying cameras. He deplores such pictures as the one he saw recently of President Roosevelt with his mouth half open in the act of eating or drinking. The war cry against such intrusions has been taken up by others. But a letter from Lord Southwood shows that the problem of cameras in ambush is not so new after all. It is recalled that at the International Railway Congress in 1895 the Prince of Wales, subsequently King Edward VII, who presided, beckoned to the secretary and said:

There is a young man up in the gallery with a photographic apparatus. Go and turn him out. Tell him I will not be photographed while I am blowing my nose.

There is a particularly strong feeling in Britain just now that cameras should be chased out of ambush. The reason is that the Royal Photographic Society has reached an important milestone in its existence. It is appealing for funds for a new home, its long tenure of a stately house in Russell Square having come to an end. The occasion has been taken to expound the wonderful achievements of the camera in the arts, in natural science, in commerce, in education, in detection of crime, and in aerial mapping. The camera's reputation is one that should not be tarnished by the prying of a few sensation seekers.



12th July 1938  Page 11 - PRESS, VOLUME LXXIV, ISSUE 22451

PHOTOGRAPHY AT ITS BEST

BRITISH SOCIETY’S COLLECTION

EXHIBITION IN CITY
An exhibition of photographs of unusual quality is at present on display at the Durham Street Art Gallery. The collection which comprises the pictorial section of the Royal Photographic Society 1937 annual exhibition, is being shown under the auspices of the leading photographic societies of New Zealand, in association with Kodak (Australasia), Ltd. This is the first occasion on which a pictorial section of the Royal Photographic Society has been shown in New Zealand.

At a private view last evening, when the exhibition was officially opened by Mr. R. Wallwork, director of the School of Art, the importance of the opportunity of seeing such work was emphasized by Mr. F.L. Casbolt, president of the Christchurch Photographic Society. Mr. Casbolt thanked Kodak, Ltd., for the financial help which made it possible to show the collection to the public.

In declaring the exhibition open, Mr. Wallwork said that the ease with which the cult of the camera had seized Europe 100 years ago had not been surprising. The people of European countries had come to expect from the artist an attempt at representational veracity. A picture was expected to satisfy the layman that he was looking at the scene or object itself. European art was different from the old art of China, Japan, Persia, and Egypt, where there was a lack of orderly perspective and light and shade and shadow, so that it was dissociated, in a measure from orderly reality. In Europe, the camera, as a means of direct recording, fitted quickly into its place, and look its part in progress.

“To the photographers of this city, this show will, I know, make a special appeal”, said Mr. Wallwork, in conclusion. “I trust they will realize that there is room for their personal quota of application and artistry, over and above the scientific aspect of appliances. There is the need for their own personal selection, arrangements, and treatment. It is out of this that their artistry may be revealed.

“I feel they will find inspiration in the exhibition, and that it will recruit many new followers to the cult of photography”.

THE WORK ON VIEW
The work on view covers a very wide range. It demonstrates the technical and artistic achievement of the best photographers of Great Britain together with a number of outstanding workers from America and other countries. The technical aspect means a great deal to the initiate, but little to the layman, who can, however, appreciate the pictorial qualities of a good photograph.

Both types of appeal are combined in such a photograph as “Wave”, by Albert Karplus, with its dramatic sweep, clear texture, and depth. “Lunch”, by Yousuf Karsh, is a happy study of a child, and “Cold Weather”, by E. Yamazaki, a Japanese child study, has a similar appeal. “Sjogren”, by Harold Lonnqvist, is a striking and humorous portrait of a house painter, with good modeling of the face. “Rape Blossoms”, by Masao Nomura, shows a Japanese quality of pattern.

Among the many portraits, "Mary”, by R.N. Haile, is one of the most pleasant. “Uriah”, by Dr. Julian Smith, is a strong, fantastic figure study, and “Legal Problem”, by Walter Thomas, although perhaps too deliberately like an old master, is an interesting character study.

"URIAH"
1930's
Dr Julian SMITH

Photography as reporting a fact is well represented by “It’s in the News”, by E. Heimann, with its random group of people studying news placards. “Shadows”, by W.H. Wolfs, places an arrangement of barred shadows against a pile of sacks, and “Low Tide”, by Ward Hutchinson, catches the solidity of wind-ribbed sand. “Flight”, by B.A. Butt, has caught a gull against the sky in expressive movement. “August Sand”, by Donald Miner, succeeds by the simplicity of its composition and its directness of treatment. “Hollyhocks”, by C.R.R. Robson builds tall, well-defined plants against the sky. “Climbing Pattern”, by G. Crosby, is a fine study of gradations of light from the brilliance of crystalline snow to reflected glow on the clothing of silhouetted figures. “Ebb Tide”, by Olive Leigh, satisfied by its simplicity and its unaffected composition, with a tilted boat on sand broken by lines of footmarks. These are only a few among the many notable photographs that deserve special mention. In addition there are a number that show how a photographer may stray into the meaningless effort of imitating other art mediums. These approach as near as can be to looking like etchings, aqua-tints, lithographs, or crayon drawings, and fail because they are neither one thing nor the other. Others are marked by false sentimentality. Yet all contribute to the educative quality of a highly interesting exhibition.



Tuesday 26th July 1938  Page 3 - The Gloucester Advocate (NSW)

The Honorary fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain was recently conferred upon Dr. D.A. Spencer, immediate past president.



Saturday 3rd September 1938  Page 4 - The Newcastle Sun (NSW)

CAMERA CRAFT
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain will hold its 83rd annual exhibition, under the patronage of His Majesty the King, from September 10 to October 8. Entries have closed. Entries close on September 30 for the Ninth International Photographic Salon of Japan with the secretary, Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo. Here is a chance for Newcastle amateurs!

Saturday 5th October 1940  Page 4 - The Newcastle Sun (NSW)

With the world at war, amateur photography is well in the background in most countries, but photographers of every class have been and are, having a wonderful time at the World Fair in the United States.

Under the guiding hand of the Photographic Society of America, the World's Fair has this year produced a remarkable photographic effort. It has been gold-starred with popular contests and pleasing exhibitions. But at the moment the Photographic Society of America must ride in a back seat. The Oval Table Society's member salon has been assembled and is occupying the place of honor in the rotunda of the Hall of Industry and Metals.

By and large, the Oval Table exhibition is the most gratifying yet to hang at the Fair. It Includes 182 prints by some 39 photographers. These pictures vary in size from about 8 x 10 inches to prodigious efforts larger than the standard 16 x 20 exhibition mount. But the effect is not spotty. The majority of the prints are of standard size and variations, due to the uniformly high print quality, do not seem obvious.

Membership in the Oval Table is by invitation only, largely dependent upon a worth-while contribution, scientifically or otherwise, to the progress of photography and the prints displayed prove that the members - from the pictorial point alone - rank among the world's finest photographers. A glance at the exhibition catalog will show the visitor that 29 Fellows and Associates of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain are exhibiting. Included is a former president of the Royal Photographic Society, the president of the Photographic Society of America, the President of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, the past president of the Pictorial Photographers of America and a number of professionals whose names are bywords in the industry. In fact, every participant is either an outstanding exhibitor or internationally known judge. The prints now being shown have not passed before any committee of Judges. Each member has sent what he considers the outstanding examples of his work and they make a fascinating combination.

VERSATILITY SHOWN
Getting down to specific examples. Edward Alenius shows his amazing versatility to good advantage. His "A Country Home" is truly a Yankee picture, full of the crisp, hard feeling of a New England winter. With two still-life's. "Fresh From the Garden" and "Colorful Roses", he proves that in color one need not necessarily be harsh and blatant to be effective.

Robert C. Bagby's "March" has the delicate feeling of springtime in tree branches and his "Running Pet" will always rank high as one of the most appealing dog pictures. Robert A. Barrows has captured all the majesty of a rugged coastline in "Craggy Cliffs". Joseph M. Bing, Hon.Secretary of the Oval Table Society, is exhibiting a sympathetic picture of little boys titled "May Be".

The work of Adolf Fassbender is shown in six examples of outstanding quality and artistry. Noteworthy are his "On High", showing a winged figure against a background of towering clouds; "Evening Glory", a sunset in Nova Scotia and "Recess", young girls beside a lake.

COMPELLING STUDY
Louis Fleckenstein's "Grand Canyon of Arizona" is a compelling study of the tonal planes in the biggest trench of all. Forman Hanna has contributed several of his delightful outdoor figure sketches and shows a new phase of ability in his studies of the Southwest. "Kiva Steps Isleta" and "Church at Tesuque". Norris Harkness's "Central Park" shows delicacy of tone, while Joseph W. Hazell illustrates with a number of excellent pictures what can be done with a camera along the city waterfront.

Outstanding portraits are contributed by Dr. Theron W. Kilmer, whose "A Real Santa" is a notable contribution. His six portraits show why he is called "photographer of men". John H. Magee exhibits consistent quality as a pictorialist. Ira Martin has submitted his beautiful study of leaf texture called "A Plant".

A deviation from the black and white prints is provided by Herbert C. McKay's microscopic photographs of developers crystallized on glass and photographed in color by means of polarized light. Leo S. Pavelle's prints present a graceful conception of the Mexican scene.

If the visitor is interested in color photography and the finest at that, it will be difficult to tear himself away from the work of Nickolas Muray. "The Winner", a picture of a girl emerging from a swimming pool, is fresh and vital. "Eggs" is admittedly one of the finest color still-life's yet created, while "Miss Gail Patrick" will rank high among color portraits.

Dr. D.J. Ruzicka, with his three studies of "The Thread of Life", shows once again what can be done sequentially in pictorial photography. And Mrs Helene Sanders justifies her position as the only woman in the Oval Table with a number of charming prints, not the least attractive of which is "Le Petit Dejeuner", a stunning example of the diagonal in composition.

Also on display at the Hall of Industry and Metals, under the sponsorship of the Oval Table, is a group of 23 prints by Lowell Thomas junior, son of the radio commentator. Mr. Thomas junior, was the only civilian to accompany the United States naval squadron on its 1939 good-will trip to South America. The prints are a selection from his photographic records of the trip.



Wednesday 5th August 1942  Page 2 - National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW)

Mr. John P. Carney, amateur photographer, a Griffith, NSW, who has for many years successfully exhibited his pictures at the Bathurst Show, has been elected an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.



Friday 13th April 1945  Page 4 - Examiner (Launceston TAS)

SUCCESS OF AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS
Two Launceston amateur photographers have achieved outstanding success, one in an international photographic exhibition in America and the other in an important mainland photographic display. Mr. J.W. Ikin received advice yesterday that one of his prints had been hung at an international photographic exhibition at Rochester USA. He had been informed, he said, that 80 prints had been submitted by Australian photographers, but only four had been selected for hanging, of which his was one. The picture is a landscape with children's figures taken in the Punch Bowl. A print from the same negative won a first prize at last year's Launceston show and another won an important competition in England last month. The other successful amateur is Mr. W.L. De Santo, one of whose pictures exhibited at the last annual Australian Landscape Exhibition, organized by the Adelaide Camera Club, won a bronze plaque. More than 460 entries from all over Australia were shown at the exhibition and Mr. Do Santo was the only Tasmanian to receive such an award. His picture is to be included in an exhibition, of Australian photography which is being collected on behalf of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain for display in England after the war.



Tuesday 21st May 1946  Page 8 - The Daily News (Perth, WA)

CAMERA ARTIST EXHIBITS HERE
An exhibition, of 95 prints of Dr. Julian Smith FRPS, of Melbourne, outstanding Australian amateur photographic artist, opened today at Kodak's, Hay Street. The exhibition was opened by president Dr H.S. Lucraft of the Van Raalte Club of Pictorial Photography. The photographs will be on exhibition for three to four weeks. "I hope the public will avail itself of this opportunity of seeing the work of one of the most famous photographers of his century", Dr Lucraft said. "During the past quarter of a century or so there has hardly been a single exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain that has not contained one or more of Dr Julian Smith's works.

The following images are from the
BRITISH PHOTOGRAPHIC ALMANAC 1951

the following 13 images are from the
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
ANNUAL EXHIBITION, 1954
http://earlyphotographers.blogspot.com/2011/01/1952.html

           

image 1: THE CUILLINS IN SILHOUETTE by W.E. BALL, WEST WICKHAM
image 2: INVITATION by C.E. BLAKE, SALISBURY
image 3: ELY VISTA by MARGARET F. HARKER, LONDON

           

image 4: THE BEGGAR WITHOUT by G.S. BROADWAY, JOHANNESBURG
image 5: YAWN by Mrs. ANN-MARIE GRIPMAN, SWEDEN
image 6: PORTRAIT by POUL PEDERSEN, DENMARK

           

image 7: LIVERPOOL STREET STATION by E. LUKE, ICKENHAM, GREATER LONDON
image 8: GARDEN IN THE STRAND by F.A. WEEMYS, WATFORD
image 9: THE WHITE HOUSE, POLPERRO by D.C. CHAMBERS, LONDON

                 

image 10: REPORTAGE EN A. O. F. by PIERRE ROUSSEL, FRANCE
image 11: LINES OF EXPERIENCE by FRANCIS WU, HONG KONG
image 12: MEDITATION by H.F. PILGRIM, CHATHAM
image 13: SPECTATORS by N.J.V. WATT, NORTHERN RHODESIA

1st June 1950  Page 394 - Volume 57 No. 6 - Australasian photo-review

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
PROGRESS MEDAL
The Council of the Royal Photographic Society has awarded the Society’s 38th Progress Medal to Professor. Dr. John Eggert, of Eidg. Technische HoshschuleJ Zurich, in recognition of his classical work in latent image theory, particularly on the quantum efficiency carried out with Noddack; for his work on the effect of X-rays on photographic emulsion; and in evolving; methods of standardization of photographic speed and graininess.

The medal may be awarded annually, at the discretion of the Council, in recognition of any invention, research, publication or exhibition which shall have resulted in any important advance in the science, art or practice of photography.

The first recipient of this medal, the highest honor the Society can bestow, was Captain W. de W. Abney (afterwards Sir W. de W. Abney F.R.S.), in 1878, and subsequent recipients have included such distinguished scientists as Andre Callier, J.G. Capstaff, Thomas Rudolphus Dallmeyer, W.B. Ferguson, F.E. Ives, Loyd Ancile Jones, A. Lumiere, G.E.K. Mees and H. Dennis Taylor. Other photographic contributions have received recognition in the persons of George Eastman, P.H. Emerson, Alfred Stieglitz and F.J. Mortimer.

SIR WILLIAM DE WIVELESLIE ABNEY

Born 24th July 1843 Derby, England
Died 3rd December 1920 (aged 77) Folkestone, England

PIONEER OF SEVERAL TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

THOMAS RUDOLPHUS DALLMEYER

Born 16th May 1859
Died 25th December 1906 (aged 47)

FIRST PRACTICAL TELEPHOTO LENS (PATENTED 1891)

AUGUSTE MARIE LOUIS NICOLAS LUMIERE

Born 19th October 1862 Besançon, France
Died 10th April 1954 (aged 91) Lyon, France

French engineer, industrialist, biologist, and illusionist.
During 1894–1895, he and his brother Louis invented an
animated photographic camera and projection device,
the cinematograph, which met with worldwide success

FREDERIC EUGENE IVES

Born 17th February 1856
Died 27th May 1937

PIONEER IN THE FIELD OF COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY

ONE OF THE FOUNDING MEMBERS OF THE
PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA

LOYD ANCILE JONES

Born 12th April 1884
Died 15th May 1954 (aged 70)

In 1912, he joined the scientific research
staff at Eastman Kodak Company, where
he became chief physicist in 1916

Wednesday 30th May 1951  page 1 - The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate (NSW)

A LEG GLANCE IS THE BEST GUIDE TO FORM
Photographers and artists yesterday agreed that men could tell some, of a woman's character from studying her legs — but not all of it. They were commenting on a statement by Hollywood photographer, Clarence Bull, that a man can learn a woman's character merely by looking at her legs. Laurance Le Guay, leading city commercial photographer, said he believed a man "with a little experience" could tell a woman's occupation, hobbies and sports by studying her legs. John Hearder, a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, said a woman's legs could show whether or not she was a keen sportswoman, but her character was revealed only in her eyes and expression. Owen Sands, Sydney artist and advertising agent, said the shape of legs were "a help" in working out feminine character, but he felt a woman's walk was was a more valuable guide. "A woman who walks with a decisive, heavy tread usually has a slightly masculine personality", he said. "But the woman with a slinky, seductive walk is a real femme fatale".



1st January 1953  Page 60 - Volume 60 No. 1 - Australasian photo-review

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
On Tuesday 20th January, 1953, the Royal Photographic Society will reach the hundredth anniversary of its formation, and a special lecture on “The Centenary of the Royal Photographic Society” will be given by Mr. Bertram Sinkinson FRPS, one of its Vice-Presidents, in the lecture theatre of the Royal Society of Arts, John Adam Street, Strand, London, W.C.2, where the first meeting was held a century ago. During the course of his lecture Mr. Sinkinson will reconstruct the atmosphere of that first meeting and show how the society has since developed.

The lecture will commence at 3.30pm. Admission will be free but by ticket only, obtainable on application to the Royal Photographic Society, Hon.Secretary at 16 Princes Gate, London.

During the evening of the same day the society will hold a banquet at Claridge’s Hotel, London, when Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester will be the principal guests. Among other distinguished guests will be the President of the Royal Society, the President of the Royal Academy of Arts, and the Chairman of the Royal Society of Arts.

Throughout the year the society will be organizing a series of special monthly exhibitions and lectures of outstanding quality. The exhibitions will cover color, pictorial, scientific, medical, commercial, industrial, press, nature and architectural subjects. There will also be a show of photographs and apparatus from the society’s collections. During January a selection of the work accepted this year for the Society’s Associateship and Fellowship will be shown.

A brief history of the society and a complete program of the year’s events is being prepared for circulation to every member.

One of the major events of the year will be an International Conference on the Science and Applications of Photography, which will be held in London from September 19th to 25th. An ambitious program is being prepared and is likely to attract many distinguished scientists and technologists from other countries. The conference will consist of papers, discussions, visits and social events. It has been divided into five main sections, so as to cover the specialized interests of those expected to attend, namely, photographic science, kinematography and color photography; technique and scientific applications of photography; photo-mechanical processes; documentation, abstracting and education.



21st January 1953  AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER - Vol. CV, No. 3350

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
CENTENARY
It was at four o'clock in the afternoon of January 20th, 1853, that there was held, at the house of the Royal Society of Arts, a meeting of amateur photographers who passed a resolution to the effect that there should be formed a society to be called "The Photographic Society." From the name chosen, it is clear that, at all events in the belief of the founders, there was no other such society in existence, though others followed so soon that it was commonly known as "The Photographic Society of London". Twenty one years later the name was officially changed to "The Photographic Society of Great Britain", for by that time it had become universally recognized as the premier society of the kingdom. This status was officially confirmed twenty years later still when, in 1894, it became, by Royal Charter, "The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain".

Yesterday the centenary of the Royal Photographic Society was celebrated by a series of events culminating in a dinner attended by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and many notable guests, including Professor E.D. Adrian, President of the Royal Society, and Sir Gerald Kelly, President of the Royal Academy. Both replied to the toast of "The Guests", so fitly emphasizing the special status of photography as both a science and an art. In the morning the President, Mr. I.D. Wratten, received at the Society's House many addresses of congratulation from kindred organizations in this court try and abroad, · and in the afternoon the senior Vice-President, Mr. Bertram Sinkinson, gave a Centenary Lecture, the material of which was based on the first two lectures ever to be given before the Society, in the actual building where the Society had been formed a hundred years before, almost to the hour.

The centenary celebrations organized by the Royal Photographic Society are by no means limited to the actual day that saw the completion of its first hundred years of active work, but are to be continued well into the first year of the second century that begins today. The Annual Exhibition is to be replaced by a series of exhibitions lasting throughout the year, all having the centenary as their theme, and it is intended to arrange a special lecture by some outstanding personality in connection with each.

Perhaps the most important event of the year, and one which is fully in line with the Society's declared aim of promoting the general advancement of photography and its applications, will be the International Conference on the Science and Applications of Photography, to be held in September at the Institute of Education in Malet Street, London. The Duke of Edinburgh has graciously consented to extend his patronage to this event, which is expected to attract many distinguished scientists and photographers from overseas as well as from all parts of this country. There will be a full program of lectures, visits and social events, and the Conference will last for a full week.

To mark the Society's Centenary, this issue contains a special article on the history of the Royal Photographic Society by Mr. Harry Cooper, for very many years the Society's official reporter, who has probably attended more meetings in the last half century than any other member. In addition there is an article giving a picture of photography as it was practised in the early days of the Society.

WINTER EVENING
By K. Reitz

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
100 YEARS RETROSPECT
HARRY COOPER
Even with the prolongation of human life no living memory goes back for a hundredJears. But some of us ageing folk retain most vivid recollections of fifty years ago. Fifty years ago the Editor of Amateur Photographer was Horsley Hinton - a photographic pictorialist of the front rank and a most engaging and high-spirited personality. "He was one of the leaders of the new pictorialism, along with Craig Annan, Alexander Keighley, Alfred Steiglitz, and others. Some of his pictures were acclaimed as amongst the highest examples of pictorial photography.

                 

left to right  HORSLEY HINTON, CRAIG ANNAN, ALEXANDER KEIGHLEY, ALFRED STEIGLITZ

One of Horsley Hinton's interests at that time was the London Camera Club, a rather Bohemian body, which met in Charing Cross Road on Monday and Thursday evenings. He got me to report these meetings for him, but one day he told me that he had been reminded that there was, after all, another photographic institution in London, half-a-mile away in what was then a rather select Bloomsbury, which claimed that dignity deserved publicity at least as much as impudence. So Tuesday evenings which were the night in the week for Royal Photographic Society meetings were earmarked in the diary for that purpose.

The Royal Photographic Society was then meeting in one of the tall old houses on the east side of Russell Square - No. 66 - long since pulled down to make way for the Imperial Hotel. It's meetings were of a much more formal and conventional character than those of the London Camera Club. One night in the month was given up usually to a paper on some scientific or technical aspect of photography, another to some photographic application, a third to the demonstration of some printing or other process, and on the fourth the Society would unbend to a travelogue or something of the kind.

FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY
The very first meeting I attended happened to be the annual general meeting of the Society in March, 1903, when the fiftieth birthday was being celebrated. But there was no mark of jubilee about the occasion. It was a solemn assembly of greybeards with a very dull major-general in the chair. I remember it for a certain personal circumstance. After some formal business the major-general announced that all persons whatsoever who were not members of the Society must instantly dismiss. After a little hesitation I made for the door, to be summoned back by a young man wearing one of the most clever and cheerful countenances I had ever seen. He told me that as I was reporting for the Press I was not technically a "person" within the meaning of the by-law.

He explained that although it was intolerable that any member of the public should listen to what the Royal Photographic Society had to say about its annual accounts, it was quite in order for a reporter to record what was said for the benefit of all and sundry. This sounded strange to a budding journalist, but during the ensuing fifty years there have been many similar startling revelations.

I discovered that the young man who had caught my coat tails on that occasion was Charles Edward Kenneth Mees, already a name of magic in photographic science, especially in color sensitivity. He and a colleague, most often Sheppard, but he always the prime mover, read a series of remarkable papers to the Society at about this time. They were recondite, they assumed a knowledge of photo-chemistry which few in that audience could have possessed, terms such as "gamma infinity" were tossed about as a juggler tosses the balls. Many in his Royal Photographic Society audiences understood what it was all about as little as I understood it myself, and yet the charm of the performance was such that they watched fascinated and laughed and applauded at all the right points. Shortly afterwards, to the loss of photographic gaiety in Great Britain, Mees settled in America. The last time I saw him, a few years ago at Oxford, it was difficult to recognize in this weighty scientist the Peter Pan of scientific photography of nearly half-a-century before.

CHARLES EDWARD KENNETH MEES

Born: 26th May 1882, Wellingborough, United Kingdom
Died: 15th August 1960, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

EDUCATION: UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
AWARDS: FRANKLIN MEDAL, RUMFORD PRIZE, HENRY DRAPER MEDAL

THE INAUGURATION OF THE SOCIETY
The Society at the time of which I am speaking was fifty years old. It had been inaugurated at a well advertised and largely attended meeting in London on Thursday, January 20th, 1853. It would be truer to say that its inauguration had taken place a month earlier, because on December 22nd, 1852, at the Society of Arts in the Adelphi 774 specimens of photography were exhibited and aroused the kind of enthusiasm which to-day would be given to new racing motorcars or new developments in television. The idea of a society to bring together those interested in this subject and to develop and further it followed swiftly upon that exhibition. The meeting was held under the presidency of Sir Charles Eastlake, President of the Royal Academy, whose picture "Ruth and Boaz" was the Academy painting of that particular year. The obvious leader of such a movement would have been Henry Fox Talbot, who had produced pictures on sensitized paper fourteen years before, and whose name was at the head of all the pioneers of photography on the British side. It was only after Fox Talbot had declined the chair that Eastlake consented to occupy it. Fox Talbot never seems to have come into any close identification with the Society, but another photographic pioneer of the period, the Rev. J.B. Reade, became a member of the Society three years after its foundation.

SIR CHARLES LOCK EASTLAKE

Born: 17th November 1793 – Plymouth, Devon
Died: 24th December 1865 - Pisa, Italy

Photography, of course, was a well-established thing before the Society come into existence. The wet collodion process had anticipated the Society by two years or more. In the field of portraiture the great work of D.O. Hill in Glasgow had already been done. Photography had evidently interested large numbers of people who had taken up mid-Victorian scientific pursuits, as the number of papers read at the early meetings sufficiently showed. It interested also those who had artistic feeling but lacked the technical ability to give it expression in the ordinary way with pencil or brush. And beyond these there was the great popular appeal of photography. Thus a writer in Macmillan's Magazine in the 'fifties declared that photography was the greatest boon that had been conferred upon the poorer classes, by which he meant that they were able to have portraits of absent relatives and friends, to bring back memories of the dead and of past incidents and associations.

THE INTEREST OF ROYALTY
The Society was helped also by Royal patronage, although it was not until 1B94 that it became "Royal". Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort attended the first exhibition in 1854, and expressed their extreme satisfaction with its excellence. The young Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward VII, visited the exhibition in 1857 as a lad of fifteen. At one of those early exhibitions Queen Victoria kept her carriage waiting for an hour beyond the time fixed for her departure.

If the Society went to the Royal Academy for its first President, it went to the law for its second. This was Sir Frederick Pollock, Lord Chief Baron, who would not have it, by the way, that photography was rightly called an art, but described it as a practical science. The third president came from the fellowship of the Royal Society in James Glaisher, who occupied the chair for as long as 22 years.

JAMES GLAISHER

Born: 7th April 1809
Died: 7th February 1903

PRESIDENT FOR 22 YEARS
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
1869–1874 and 1875–1892

Other early Presidents were Sir Henry Trueman Wood, secretary of the Society of Arts, the Earl of Crawford, interested in many provinces of art, T.R. Dallmeyer, the optician, Sir William Abney, photographic chemist and one of those who helped to set the stage for color photography and Lord Redesdale. The last named was one 0f the most picturesque figures of Edwardian society, a man who would have caught the eye in any age; perhaps most of all around St. James's in the time of the Regency. His silver curls, his dandyish attire, and his aristocratic manner only faintly disguised his solid culture and his personal charm. He was a connoisseur in many fields, especially in the art of Japan. His two presidential addresses, although they had less direct photographic interest than most, were two of the most remarkable ever delivered from the Society's chair. One was an exposition of the history of paper and the other a masterly appreciation of Leonardo da Vinci.

The Society at this period occupied in succession two houses in Russell Square, then still much favored by bench and bar. The first was No. 66 on the east side, the second was No. 35 on the west side, more elegant than the one across the way, and one could imagine what stately functions had taken place on occasion under its fine ceilings. Later, even this house had to give way to the claims of London University and the Society found refuge in its present house in the aristocratic quarter of Prince's Gate, almost opposite the memorial to its early friend, the Prince Consort.

Old members of the Society may recall the Russell Square days with regret. The Society was then in its 60 middle years, and much pioneer work there received its first acclamation, or sometimes the crushing criticism of silence. It was a great day for color photography. One of the outstanding occasions was the first demonstration of the new Lumiere Autochrome process in 1907, when the house was packed with a crowd on the tiptoe of expectation. "Here", said everybody, "is color photography at last - the real thing". Many other color processes at that time made a transitory appearance. But in spite of the urge for color, photography as a monochrome art had its triumphs, too. The oil process was demonstrated in 1904, and the first of many demonstrations of bromoil in 1907. To one who attended literally hundreds of meetings of the Society during those years, demonstrations of autotype, platinotype, carbon seemed to litter the ground.

The Society's meetings did not stop - I do not recall that they were even curtailed - during the first world war. On some occasions they coincided with air raids, with targets that seemed to be quite uncomfortably near, but the assembled photographers saw it through, just as they endured a good deal else at that time. The annual exhibitions also continued, although during the war years they became more or less house exhibitions, and were assisted to a large extent by work from the United States. It was in the earlier years that the New Gallery in Regent Street became the scene of the photographic event of the year, with he secretary of the Society nervously at the door expecting Queen Alexandra to come along at any moment.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GROUPS
As with other growing bodies, so with the Royal Photographic Society, grouping or sectionalizing became necessary. The first sign of it was when a President of the Society, F.F. Renwick, sought to form a Scientific and Technical Section. This was done in 1919 and a little later came a Pictorial Section, which devoted Friday evenings to interminable discussions on the ethics and other aspects of pictorialism. Other groups followed, devoted to kinematography, color and miniature camera work, and medical applications. The Society's meetings, which were originally only on Tuesday evenings, more or less extended themselves through the week. This has largely met the complaint that one or other sectional interest was being disregarded.

The Pictorial is today the largest of the groups, with close upon 1,000 members, followed by the Scientific and Technical with 600. With its meetings, its journal, its library and museum, its permanent collection, the Society, through its 6,000 members, can be said to be serving photography in a manner worthy of its hundred years of history. It faces its second hundred years with confidence. What shape and pattern will photography have taken in the year 2053? What new marvels will it bring to thrill, and what new beauty to adorn, the world ? But if experience of the past hundred years counts for anything, photography will continue to have during the next hundred the guardianship and encouragement of a Society which is able to command the unstinted, loyal, unrewarded service of those most skilled and well informed in its every branch and application.



1st February 1953  Page 120 - Volume 60 No. 2 - Australasian photo-review

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
CENTENARY
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE SCIENCE AND APPLICATIONS OF PHOTOGRAPHY
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain celebrates its Centenary in 1953 and will hold an International Conference on the Science and Applications of Photography in London from Saturday, September 19th, 1953, to Friday, September 25th, 1953.

The conference will cover many aspects of the science, technique and applications of photography and will be divided into sections dealing with:
1. Photographic Science (including theory of latent image and development, sensitization, sensitometry, resolving power, granularity, properties of photographic materials).
2. Cinematography and Color Photography.
3. Technique and Applications of Photography (including industrial radiography, photomicrography, spectroscopy, aerial photography, photogrammetry, high-speed photography, nuclear track recording, and other physical, chemical and biological applications; photocopying; apparatus, processes, manipulations).
4. Photo-mechanical Processes.
5. History, Literature (including abstracting and documentation), and Training in Photography.

All persons taking an interest in photography or its applications are cordially invited to attend the conference and to submit papers for discussion. Titles and indications of the scope of such papers should be submitted before February 1st, 1953. Further details will be sent on application to the Hon.Secretary, Royal Photographic Society Centenary Conference, 16 Princes Gate, London.



1st April 1953  Page 254 - Volume 60 No. 4 - Australasian photo-review

Extract from the January, 1953, issue of the journal of the
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
FIFTY YEARS OF MEMBERSHIP
On the eve of the Society’s Centenary Year, the President sent, on behalf of all members of the Society a personal message of greetings and good wishes to each of the following nineteen members who have completed fifty or more years of membership:

FIFTY YEARS OF MEMBERSHIP
1890 Mr. T.A.G. Strickland Cambridge	1891 Mr. J.E.D. Ezra India	1892 Lieutenant Colonel G.A. Beazeley Jersey	1894 Mr. A.L. Spiller Sussex	1895 Mr. J.O. Ince Sussex	1895 Miss E.L. Moysey Somerset	1895 Mr. E.A. Robins Hants	1896 Mr. Walter Burke Sydney, Australia	1898 Dr. E.G. Boon Hampshire	1899 Mr. T. Thorne Baker Middlesex
1899 Mr. H. Cookson South Africa	1899 Mr. W.T. Greatbatch Warwickshire	1900 Mr. C.P. Butler Cambridge	1900 Mr. W.M. Rouse Gerrard’s Cross	1901 Mr. J.T. Griffin London	1901 Mr. W.G. Holman London	1901 Dr. C.E.K. Mees Rochester, New York U.S.A.	1901 Mr. R.S. Potter New Jersey, U.S.A.	1902 Mr. A.W.W. Bartlett Essex

This is indeed a magnificent record of loyal an unselfish support for the purpose for which the Society was established — the advancement of photography and its applications, and the Society’s warmest thanks are due to these members and to the many others who have records of membership nearly as long.



Thursday 25th June 1953  page 3 - Advocate (Burnie, Tasmania)

TRIBUTE TO PHOTOGRAPHER
A tribute which members of the Northern Tasmanian Camera Club had arranged to pay to the well known Australian photographer, Mr. Harold Cazneaux, will now hold a much deeper significance. Officials of the club were notified yesterday that Mr. Cazneaux died in Sydney early yesterday morning. Mr. Cazneaux, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, had been prominent in Australian photographic circles for more than 50 years. Last year photographic societies in Sydney combined to pay tribute to Mr. Cazneaux at a function at which 50 of his best works were displayed. Tape recordings and a film of the pictures displayed with comments by Mr. Cazneaux were made and distributed to photographic societies all over Australia. Arrangements had been made to have, this tribute in Launceston next Tuesday and officials of the Northern Tasmanian Camera Club decided yesterday that they would hold the function as planned. Members of other clubs in the North and North-West have been invited to attend the function, which will be held at the club's rooms at the Queen Victoria Museum.



Thursday 2nd September 1954  page 7 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

SHE PHOTOGRAPHS OPERATIONS FOR HER SURGEON - HUSBAND
An Australian woman who married an eminent London surgeon now has the rare privilege of going into the operating theatre with him to photograph his operations. This unusual husband - wife doctor - photographer team will arrive in Sydney by air on Saturday for five weeks visit. Dr. Rodney Maingot, one of Britain's leading surgeons, will be visiting McIlraith Professor at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Mrs Maingot was originally going to Australia merely for a holiday and to revisit the country she left 20 years ago when she was Miss Rosalind Smeaton, of Brisbane and an actress with J.C. Williamson's. Now her visit will include giving a Sydney lecture on color photography and collecting a bag of color photographs of Australia to bring back to London. Mrs Maingot took up photography as a hobby after her marriage. She became an expert amateur, is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and was the first woman elected to be a member of its council. Photography has never been a money-making career for Mrs Maingot, but lecturing to photographic groups all over England and helping to judge the work sent to the society from all parts of the world absorbs much of her time.

A few years ago, Mrs Maingot wrote a book on photography called "Amateurs Just Like You". An interest in her husband's work first attracted her to medical photography and now she is recognized as an expert in the specialized field of color work in medicine. Mrs Maingot also interested the Royal Photographic Society in this branch of photography and herself created the first medical photographic group within the society. "Although I was never a nurse and not used to surgery, the operating theatre has never worried me", she said. "On the contrary, I am fascinated by it all when I'm working". Anticipation and timing were the most important things to remember when using a camera at the operating table, she said. "And, of course, most surgeons are very impatient - though I must say my husband is always very good to me", she added. A few hours before they left by air on the first part of their journey to Sydney, Dr. and Mrs Maingot were still packing and packing, trying to get their luggage weight down to the air travel limit. There was little room left for clothes after Dr. Maingot's books and instruments, his wife's two cameras and photographic equipment had been packed. A trunkful of more than 500 photographic slides has been sent by sea and will be waiting for them in Sydney. About 400 of the slides belong to Dr. Maingot and will be shown at his medical lectures in Sydney. The rest are for a lecture on new color processes in pictorial photography which Mrs Maingot will give in Sydney.

The following nine images are from the
BRITISH PHOTOGRAPHIC ALMANAC 1955
and exhibited at the
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
ANNUAL EXHIBITION, 1954
http://earlyphotographers.blogspot.com/2011/01/photogravure-reproductions-from-british.html

           

image 1: LIGHT AND SHADOWS, LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL by MARGARET HARKER
image 2: YOUNG MALAY GIRL by YAN FOOK-LEUN, SINGAPORE
image 3: CAMPINO by BERNARDINO CADETE, PORTUGAL

           

image 4: HURRA by VICTOR SKITA, HUNGARY
image 5: TABOO by GEORGE E. RUSSELL, PAISLEY
image 6: GRANDPA'S TALE by Mrs. DAISY WU, HONG KONG

           

image 7: MOUSE-EYE VIEW by R.S. TROWELL, COWES
image 8: FIELDFARE by J. COWDEROY, LONDON
image 9: HEADLINE by G. CROSBY, ILFORD

Saturday 12th May 1956  Page 2 - The Canberra Times (ACT)

EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHY AT RIVERSIDE
An artist's eye was necessary to good photography, the Minister for Sweden, Mr. J. Kastengren, said when he opened the Canberra exhibition of portrait photographs of Mrs. Ann-Marie Gripman last night.

Mrs. Ann-Marie Gripman's work certainly showed evidence of that, he said.

The exhibition, held at Riverside, was organized by the Canberra Photographic Society in conjunction with the Swedish Legation in Canberra.

A member of the Canberra Photographic Society, Mr. Malcolm Morris, saw the exhibition in India and recommended it to the society, who contacted Mrs. Ann-Marie Gripman in Sweden.

For the Australian and New Zealand exhibition of her work, Mrs. Ann-Marie Gripman made new prints of each portrait in the collection.

She is renowned for child studies and in the Canberra selection, every possible child expression and mood is represented.

One member of the society said a feature of the collection was the general high standard of the work and the concentration of high "key" portraits.

Mrs. Ann-Marie Gripman was reported as having said that she tried to capture, more than true representation of the facial features in that she tried to capture the personality of the sitter.

With particular reference to her child studies, she said she wanted mothers to feel, in later years, how warm, how soft and even how damp the child had been.

Mr. Kastengren said that Mrs. Ann-Marie Gripman's rise to international fame had been most impressive mainly because of her ability to produce "speaking" portraits of children.

Mrs. Ann-Marie Gripman has won prizes for photography in Poland, Austria, France and in her native Sweden. She has exhibited at the London Salon of Photography and the Royal Photographic Society, also in London, as well as in America.

The exhibition has been shown in Brisbane, Wollongong, Sydney, Melbourne and Southern Tasmania and it will leave Canberra for New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore and America.

                 

image 1: BREAKING POINT, Mrs. ANN-MARIE GRIPMAN, GOTEBORG, SWEDEN
image 2: WHO ME?, Mrs. ANN-MARIE GRIPMAN, GOTEBORG, SWEDEN
image 3: I LIKE GOOD FOOD, Mrs. ANN-MARIE GRIPMAN, GOTEBORG, SWEDEN
image 4: SIXTEEN YEARS OLD, Mrs. ANN-MARIE GRIPMAN, GOTEBORG, SWEDEN

1966  An Encyclopedia of New Zealand, edited by A.H. McLINTOCK

OUTSTANDING PHOTOGRAPHERS
As New Zealand is a land richly endowed with natural beauty and with phenomena of great scientific interest, it was natural that photography should become the hobby of many individuals interested in recording its beauty and its natural history. Some of these persons became members of the Royal Photographic Society of London and attained great distinction internationally in the field of photography. Especial mention should be made of Gerald E. Jones, of Wellington, who became the first New Zealand born photographer to earn the title FRPS, gaining this distinction in 1912. George Chance of Dunedin, elected FRPS in 1923, shares with Jones the honors for pictorial photography in New Zealand. In 1954 Chance became overseas (New Zealand) corresponding member of the council of the Royal Photographic Society. William C. Davies, appointed photographer to the Cawthron Institute in 1920, paid much attention to photographing New Zealand natural history, particularly plants. He was awarded an ARPS in 1931, followed in 1932 by FRPS; later, in 1938, he became the first and only Hon.FRPS for New Zealand. In 1934 Davies was awarded the Royal Photographic Society Gold Medal for his photographic work in the fields of science. During his years of service to the Cawthron Institute, Davies amassed a collection of many thousands of negatives, a small selection from which is reproduced in his book New Zealand Plants. Davies retired from the Cawthron Institute in 1945 but continued actively in scientific photography until his death in 1952.

© PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITIONS OF AUSTRALIA