SAPS Krichauff

ADELAIDE’S OLDEST AMATEUR

FRIEDRICH EDOUARD HEINRICH WULF KRICHAUFF

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES BY E. ROBERTSON ARPS

1st June 1949 Page 342 - Vol. 56 No. 6 The Australasian Photographic Review

It was indeed a pleasure, as well as an education, to have had the privilege of visiting Mr. F.C. Krichauff at his home on the Portrush Road, some two miles outside the city of Adelaide.

Mr. Krichauff is one of the grand old men of the amateur photographic world. He was born in the year 1861, and one can well imagine the many and varied difficulties which confronted our young amateur photographer in his early manhood. However, Mr. Krichauff assures us that they were happy and interesting days when one had to place considerably more reliance on one’s own inventive and creative ability than is the case nowadays when the amateur merely has to walk into a dealer’s shop.

In Mr. Krichauff’s days one had to fend for oneself; for instance, if one was ambitious to “make the grade”, printing paper had to be sensitized by one’s own handicraft. In those days the only available paper base was of the albumenized type, and could be obtained from a single source only and that individual was not over-keen to sell. There were no photographic stores in existence, and would be photographers had to sensitize their own papers, and be content with that. One’s success, therefore, depended not only on one’s genius as a photographer, but also on one’s ability to prepare various materials in the first instance.

When it came to equipment it was much the same; for example, for many years our friend used as his darkroom lamp a candle inserted into an amber bottle, the latter having its bottom cut away for the purpose.

Another amusing sidelight! Many of us have our little idiosyncrasies; our amateur had one, too, he tells us that he invariably wore his hat in his darkroom!

The first dry plates to be obtained were made, as you can well guess, by none other than Mr. Thomas Baker, of Melbourne, the first man to make and market them in Australia. One enterprising man, a Mr. Flegeltaub, later opened a shop in Adelaide for general photographic requirements, this was in 1883 in Gawler Place; he also had a shop in Melbourne.

It was Flegeltaub who originally suggested the formation of a photographic society, and this was duly formed around about 1883, the office-bearers being as shown on the leaflet of “Rules and By-Laws” which will be found reproduced towards the end of this article. The society was named the South Australian Amateur Photographic Society and had for its President no less a person than His Excellency the Right Honorable the Earl of Kintore G.C.M.G. Mr. Krichauff was elected secretary; our friend was, therefore, the first secretary, in an official capacity, of a photographic society in South Australia.

An architect by profession, he planned some of Adelaide’s principal buildings — notably that fine edifice, the School of Mines, on North Terrace, Adelaide.

In the South Australian Amateur Photographic Society group picture we see three of the men who held office in the Society; these were; Mr. Dailey, Mr. Stace and our friend himself.

Actually, his friend Captain Sweet was the first landscape and architectural photographer in South Australia, and the Official South Australia Archivist has many excellent examples of his work in his files.

The photographs, reproductions of which accompany this article, were printed on paper sensitized by Mr. Krichauff; several examples are something like seventy years old, and appear to be in perfect condition, no traces of fading or stain being discernible.

Mr. Krichauff had a close friend in Mr. Walker, a teacher of chemistry at the Prince Alfred College, and he went on to relate with much mirth and gusto of the weird and marvelous concoctions these two used to produce in the guise of photographic chemicals — remember that one was thrown on one’s own capabilities in the manufacture and concoction of chemicals, as well as in the sensitizing of papers.

In 1887, this enthusiast was awarded the “First Order of Merit” for his photographic work exhibited at the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition. This award consisted of a very heavy circular plaque, beautifully executed in deep emboss. In the previous year he had gained a large bronze medal in an exhibition called the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London. Both medals are still in his possession.

F.C. KRICHAUFF
BORN 1861
Portrait by Dickinson-Monteath

A GARDEN GROUP OF 1884
INCLUDES MEMBERS OF THE
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

GROUP OF PARLIAMENTARIANS 1893

ON THE BANKS OF THE MURRAY 1890

SAW MILL AND BULLOCK TEAMS 1890

PARLIAMENTARY PARTY SETS OUT FOR
CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 1889

In 1889 a parliamentary party made a trip into Central Australia (or somewhere in outback Australia). Can one imagine to-day a man taking an umbrella with him on such a trip as did the gentleman on the left. This party was formed at Mr. Howe’s request. In my notes I read, “Camels and men are all members of Parliament!” In 1893, Mr. Krichauff made another valuable photograph (also reproduced) of a parliamentary party on some important visit of inspection. These illustrations go to show what valuable documentary material was obtained per medium of the camera. It is to such men as Mr. Krichauff that we owe a great debt of gratitude, in those days as now, they were men who considered the task sufficiently important to go to the quite laborious work of preparing everything requisite for the obtaining of these records.

The two illustrations of the River Murray were taken by Mr. Krichauff in 1890. What clarity and sparkling detail were obtained? and once again the printing was done on his own paper. In his early photographic days the only interstate transport was per medium of the bullock teams and wagons. Here is an everyday scene of loaded wagons with bullocks as their motive power, driven by the men who pioneered our overland bush tracks. How different to the speedy transport of our day!

And now Mr. Krichauff, on the 88-year mark, is still vitally interested in photography. Although he has operated a camera over all those years, he takes great pride in saying that he never sold a picture in his life. He has given them away, no doubt, in hundreds, but he has never sold one, surely an amateur in the true sense of the word.

The photograph of the country road was taken in Gumeracha, South Australia, and shows one of Her Majesty’s Mail coaches drawn up by the wayside. Fancy a town like Gumeracha (with its surrounding wealthy district) with one solitary telephone wire!

Mr. Krichauff is not only an accomplished photographer, but he is also a keen philatelist. Photography and stamp collecting have gone hand in hand throughout his life. It was, in fact, Mr. Krichauff who inaugurated the Philatelic Society, which held its first meeting in 1888 with fifteen members; its membership now numbers over 200. Of the original fifteen members, only three survive.

GUMERACHA IN THE EARLY DAYS

July 1954
Page 447 - Australasian Photo-Review

FREDERIC CHARLES KRICHAUFF
1861-1954 (April 25th)
We have only just learned of the passing, at his residence in Portrush Road, Toorak Gardens, Adelaide, at the advanced age of ninety-three, of Frederic Charles Krichauff. Mr. Krichauff, it will be remembered, was the subject of a biographical sketch (by E. Robertson) in our issue of June, 1949. On this occasion he was termed “Australia’s Oldest Amateur” — a title which he well deserved, for his experiences in photography went back to the dawn of the home-made dry plate in the early eighties. When the South Australian Photographic Society was formed in 1883, he became its first Hon.Secretary and four years later his work gained “First Order of Merit” at the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition. As his biographer pointed out, those were the days when “one’s success depended not only on one’s genius as a photographer, but also on one’s ability to prepare the various materials in the first place.