MEMORIAL TO THE PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO HAVE GONE OUT OF FOCUS


Cecil Bostock  Eric Burke  John Cato  Harold Cazneaux  Olive Cotton  Norman Deck  Ernest Docker  Athel D'Ombrain  Peter Dombrovskis  Maxwell Dupain  Townsend Duryea  John Eaton  Kiichiro Ishida  Peter Jarver
Gerald Jones  Ichiro Kagiyama  John Kauffmann  Charles Kerry  Peter Lawrence  Arthur Ford  Ludovico Hart  James (Frank) Hurley  Sir Lionel Lindsay  Monte Luke  Henri Mallard  William Moffitt  David Moore
Lewis Morley  George Morris  Francis Mortimer  Damien Parer  Ainslie Roberts  Lewis Sharp  Wolfgang Sievers  Julian Smith  James Stening  Olegas Truchanas




   LEWIS MORLEY










DOB 16th June 1925
DOD: 3rd September 2013

Lewis Morley was a photographer. He was born in Hong Kong to English and Chinese parents and interned in Stanley Internment Camp during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong between 1941 and 1945, when he was released and went to the United Kingdom with his family. He studied at Twickenham Art School for three years and spent time as a painter in Paris in the 1950s. Perhaps best known for his photographs of Christine Keeler and Joe Orton, Morley began his career with assignments for magazines such as Tatler. He was also a successful theatre photographer.

Morley emigrated to Australia in 1971 with his wife Patricia and son Lewis, where he lived in the inner west of Sydney. He did studio and commercial work photographing architecture and food in magazines such as Belle and worked with interior designers and stylists such as Babette Hayes and Charmaine Solomon until his retirement in 1987. His autobiography Black and White Lies was published in 1992.

In the mid 1990s, Morley ventured into the gallery business when he opened The Lewis Morley Photographers Showcase. Embracing the great tradition of photographic salons, the gallery presented the work of a variety of local photographers from a range of genres including Robert Billington, Brett Leigh Dicks, Russell Kilbey, Brendan Read, Peter Solness and Greg Rouse.

In 1999, Lewis Morley appeared in the Contemporary Australian Photographers series. It was followed in 2003 with the release of a film about his life and an exhibition Myself and Eye at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.

In 2006, an extensive exhibition showcasing 50 years of Lewis Morley work was displayed at the Art Gallery of NSW. This included 150 of his works covering fashion, theatre and reportage, many of which had never before been seen.

His archive is to be donated to the National Media Museum in Bradford, England.




    WOLFGANG GEORG SIEVERS










DOB 18th September 1913
DOD: 7th August 2007

Wolfgang was an Australian photographer who specialized in architectural and industrial photography.

Wolfgang was born in Berlin, Germany. His father was Professor Johannes Sievers, an art and architectural historian with the German Foreign Office until his dismissal by the Nazi government in 1933 and author of the first four volumes of a monograph on neo-classical architect Karl Schinkel. His mother was Herma Schiffer, a writer and educator of Jewish background who was Director of the Institute for Educational Films.

From 1936 to 1938, he studied at the Contempora—Lehrateliers für neue Werkkunst in Berlin, a progressive private art school created by architect Fritz August Breuhaus de Groot, which like the famous Bauhaus, strongly emphasized the unity of all applied arts. He took architectural photographs for his father's books on Berlin's historical buildings, particularly the work of Karl Schinkel. He also spent a year working in Portugal 1935 to 1936. In 1938, he was retained as a teacher at the Contempora, but decided to emigrate to Australia following rumors of the school's imminent closure by the authorities. He had arranged for his photographic equipment to be transported, but was briefly questioned by the Gestapo, then conscripted as an aerial photographer for the Luftwaffe. He fled the country immediately, going first to England in June.

In the evening I took the train to Cologne. The next day I was in Holland, the day after that I was in England, in Kent, where my brother lived already and he took me to the pub and I got drunk on cloudy Kentish cider for the first time in my life. It was wonderful.

In Australia, Sievers opened a studio in South Yarra, Melbourne. After war was declared, he volunteered for the Australian Army and served from 1942 to 1946. Following demobilization, he established a studio at Grosvenor Chambers in fashionable Collins Street, initially drawing many of his commissions from fellow European immigrants including the architect Frederick Romberg and Ernst Fuchs who had arrived from Vienna. During his early years in Melbourne, Sievers became a lifelong friend of fellow émigré photographer Helmut Newton and his Australian actress wife June Browne, who later made photographs herself under the pseudonym "Alice Springs".

His work after the war was imbued with the Bauhaus ethos and philosophy of the New Objectivity he had learned in Berlin, combined with a socialist belief in the inherent dignity of labor. His photographs were often overtly theatrical, as he commonly photographed industrial machinery at night, isolating details with artificial light and posing workers for heightened effect. This can be seen in 'Gears for Mining Industry' (1967), perhaps his most well known single image. This approach was extraordinarily influential in Australian post-war commercial photography.





    PETER JARVER










DOB 21st August 1953
DOD: 24th April 2003


The following is from the web site peterjarver.com

Charging into electrical storms, dangling over thundering waterfalls, crawling around crocodile infested swamps, wading into flooded streams, clambering up rocky escarpments. It was all in a day’s work for photographer Peter Jarver. So was the art of waiting, Hours, Days, Months, Sometimes years.

The Adelaide-born son of Estonian parents, Peter turned his fascination with stormy weather into a career when he swapped an electrical engineering degree for a camera and moved to Darwin, home of some of the world’s biggest electrical storms.

In the dead of night and in torrential downpours, he would be out chasing some of the 40,000 lightning flashes that split Darwin’s brooding wet season skies each year. Those giant tentacles of electricity and the menacing skyscapes they illuminated became his hallmark. It was during this period he developed an intense interest in the beautiful and unique thunderstorm activity for which this area is renowned worldwide. Not many photographers begin their careers with skyscapes, but after years of passionate photography, he decided to expand these talents into landscape photography.

Once “nibbled” by the lightning he was trying to photograph, Peter said he had taken so many lightning shots, he could almost feel when a bolt was about to strike.

A fervent conservationist his crystal sharp images, mostly shot in large format with a view camera and tripod, added a new and personal perspective to an old landscape format. His indulgence of ripe and fruity colors, combined with simple but dramatic composition, invoked an emotional response few could resist.

A completely self-taught photographer, Peter Jarver had a natural talent which is complimented by his enthusiasm for the great Australian landscape. Long an advocate for the preservation of our natural heritage and his spiritual love of the land, his images are captured in a way few photographers can. The measure of a great artist is not just the impact of a few images but the perception generated by a body of work.

Peter traveled Australia for more than 20 years documenting this continent. He was passionate about this land and its fragile environment. He was acutely aware of the importance of the flora and fauna to the Australian experience and the interaction of man and the environment. It is true to say that his body of work is a valuable archive of this country, one that can now be shared by every Australian.




    OLIVE EDITH COTTON

    Image left - 1996
    Image right - 1943














DOB 11th July 1911
DOD: 27th September 2003

Olive Edith Cotton was a pioneering Australian modernist female photographer of the 1930s and 1940s working in Sydney. Cotton became a national "name" with a retrospective and touring exhibition 50 years later in 1985. Olive Cotton captured her childhood friend Max Dupain from the sidelines at photo shoots, e.g. "Fashion shot, Cronulla Sandhills, circa 1937" and made several portraits of him. Dupain was Cotton's first husband.

Olive Edith Cotton was born on 11 July 1911, the eldest child in an artistic, intellectual family. Her parents, Leo and Florence (née Channon) provided a musical background along with political and social awareness. Her mother was a painter and pianist while Leo was a geologist, who took photographs on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to the Antarctic in 1907. The Cotton family and their five children lived in the then bushland suburb of Hornsby in Sydney's north. An uncle, Frank Cotton was a professor of physiology and her grandfather, also Frank Cotton, was a Member of Parliament in the first Labor Caucus.

Given a Kodak No.0 Box Brownie camera at the age of 11, Cotton with the help of her father made the home laundry into a darkroom "with the enlarger plugged into the ironing light". Here Cotton processed film and printed her first black and white images. While on holidays with her family at Newport Beach in 1924, Cotton met Max Dupain and they became friends, sharing a passion for photography. The photograph "She-oaks" (1928) was taken at Bungan Beach headland in this period.

Cotton attended the Methodist Ladies' College, Burwood in Sydney from 1921 to 1929, gained a scholarship and went on to complete a B.A. at the University of Sydney in 1933, majoring in English and Mathematics; she also studied music and was an accomplished pianist with a particular fondness for Chopin's Nocturnes.

1929 joind the Photographic Society of New South Wales, gaining instruction and encouragement from important photographers such as Harold Cazneaux.

1939 joined the Sydney Camera Circle gaining instruction and encouragement from important photographers.

She exhibited her first photograph, "Dusk", at the Photographic Society of New South Wales’s Interstate Exhibition of 1932. She exhibited quite frequently, her photography was personal in feeling with an appreciation of certain qualities of light in the surroundings. After university she pursued photography by joining Dupain at his new studio, 24 Bond Street, Sydney. Her contemporaries included Damien Parer, Geoff Powell, the model Jean Lorraine and photographer Olga Sharpe, who frequented the studio. In Australia of the 1930s clients assumed a man would be the photographer. Cotton wryly referred to herself as "the assistant". However whenever possible Cotton photographed visiting celebrities or interesting objects in the studio, even capturing Dupain working in her piece, "Fashion shot, Cronulla Sandhills, circa 1937" and made portraits of him. The publisher Sydney Ure Smith gave her many commissions and regarded her as one of the best photographers of the 1930s and 1940s. The Commonwealth Bank's staff magazine Bank Notes featured Cotton's more non-commercial photographs as illustrations.

Tea cup ballet (1935) was photographed in the studio after Cotton had bought some inexpensive china from Woolworth's to replace the old chipped studio crockery. In it she used a technique of backlighting to cast bold shadows towards the viewer to express a dance theme between the shapes of the tea cups, their saucers and their shadows. It was exhibited locally at the time and in the London Salon of Photography in 1935. It has become Cotton's signature image and was acknowledged on a stamp commemorating 150 years of photography in Australia in 1991. Tea cup ballet features on the cover of the book Olive Cotton: Photographer published by the National Library of Australia in 1995.

Shasta Daisies (1937) and The Budapest String Quartet (circa 1937) were included in the Victorian Salon of Photography exhibition of 1937. In 1939 Olive Cotton married her long time friend Max Dupain. They separated in 1941 and were divorced in 1944. Cotton received numerous commissions in 1945, including photographs of winter and spring flowers for Helen Blaxland's book Flowerpieces, which also included some images by Dupain. Sydney Ure Smith was an advocate of her work and she did many commissions for his various art publications.

In mid-1947 Cotton went to live in the bush 35 km from Cowra, New South Wales, with her new husband Ross McInerney. They lived in a tent for the first three years, then moving to a small farm where their two children grew up. She taught Mathematics at Cowra High School for five years until 1964 when she opened a small photographic studio in the town, taking many portraits, wedding photographs, etc., for people in the surrounding district, where her work became well-known and much appreciated, although she was as yet unknown on the postwar city art scene until 1985.




    Image left - Photograph by Damien Parer
    Image right - Olive Cotton at the beach
    photograph by Max Dupain circa 1930













Exhibitions - Among others, her work was shown in the following exhibitions





   DAVID MOORE










DOB 6th April 1927 Sydney NSW
DOD: 23rd January 2003





   PETER DOMBROVSKIS










DOB 2nd March 1945 in a refugee camp in Wiesbaden, Germany
DOD: 28th March 1996 Western Arthur Range in southwest Tasmania

Peter Dombrovskis was born in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1945 of Latvian parents. He emigrated to Australia in 1950 with his mother Adele and started taking photographs in the 1960's. He was strongly influenced by Lithuanian-Australian pioneer, conservationist and photographer Olegas Truchanas, who became a father figure to him. He was equally influenced by landscape photographers of mid-century America such as Ansel Adams, Edward and Brett Weston and Eliot Porter.

In February 2003, Peter Dombrovskis was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, now in St Lious Murori, United States of America. Peter is the first Australian to be accorded this honor, and one of only 58 people to be inducted over the 200 or so years of the history of photography. Peter's work is also represented in the collections of the National Library, National Gallery of Australia, Australian Heritage Commission, National Gallery of Victoria, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, the Wilderness Gallery and many private collections.

Some of Peter's photographs have been instrumental in the conservation of various Tasmanian wild places including the prevention of the damming of the Franklin River. Peter's works have been published over 35 years in the form of books, calendars. cards and posters.

The National Library of Australia has acquired the archive of Peter's transparencies so that future generations may view and enjoy his photography.

All Peter's photographs were taken with a large format Linhof Master Technika 5 x 4 inch flatbed field camera. He used three lenses; a 90mm Nikkor F4.5, a 150mm Schneider Symar-S (standard lens) and a 300mm Nikkor MF9. He sometimes used a polarizing filter.




AINSLIE ROBERTS

DOB 12 March 1911 London
DOD: 28 August 1993

Ainslie was born in London, England in 1911 to Harold Roberts and Rose (nee Dougall). His early education was at St James's School, Clapton. The family migrated to Australia in 1922, staying first at Ardrossan before settling in Adelaide. Ainslie resumed his schooling at Westbourne Park Primary School, Blackwood in 1923 and was school dux and first in the state of South Australia in his Qualifying Certificate in 1926. His paintings and drawings from this period demonstrate proficient drafting skills and adept use of color, along with affection for the Australian landscape and ships, locomotives, buildings and bridges as favorite subjects.

In 1927, he commenced work as an office boy in an insurance firm and developed a small graphic arts business as a sideline. He took evening classes in art at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts for four years, where he found little inspiration but honed his technique nonetheless. Joining with the more commercially-oriented Keith Webb in 1937 and Maurice McClelland in 1938, he formed Webb Roberts McClelland Pty Ltd, which was to become South Australia's largest advertising agency.

He married Melva Jean ('Judy') Andrewartha on 27 February 1937. Ainslie was a keen photographer and was for some time president of the Adelaide Camera Club. Small in stature, but fit through swimming and working out in a health studio, he was rejected from military service during World War II because of a history of rheumatic fever. But joined the Volunteer Defence Corps, where his experiences inspired some fine cartoons. Ainslie and Judy Roberts' son Rhys was born in 1944.




    MAXWELL SPENCER DUPAIN










DOB 22 April 1911
DOD: 27 July 1992



Saturday 22 June 1929
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)
Page 11

CONTENTMENT
A tiny home in the west,
Rain on the window at night,
    The wind whistling thro' eaves,
A lamp with a glowing light,
    A red hearth of burning leaves,
Memories —
Content.
MAX DUPAIN


Friday 31st July 1992  Page 4 - The Canberra Times (ACT)

DUPAIN, PHOTOGRAPHER, DIES

Max Dupain, whose photos became icons of the Australian way of life, has died aged 81. His death three days ago was kept secret by friends and he was buried on Wednesday at a quiet ceremony in Sydney, NSW Art Gallery director Edmund Capon said. Mr Capon described him as the father of modern photography in Australia and a man of great initiative and drive. The Sunbaker, his image of a young man's water-sprayed head resting on crossed arms in the sand, is etched into Australia's visual memory. The black and white photo was taken in 1937, but remains a current image — appearing most recently on the cover of journalist John Pilger's book The Secret Country. Dupain had been ill for some time and had stopped working a few months ago. Dupain was part of the new generation of modern photographers who rejected the romanticism of the pictorialist movement that dominated amateur photography in the 1930s and 1940s. He was more interested in industrial landscapes. He exhibited in the Photographic Society of New South Wales's exhibition of 1928, as a 17-year-old schoolboy and joined a Sydney studio as an apprentice two years later. By the early 1930s his more abstract style was drawing criticism as "unpicturesque". He set up his own studio in Bond Street, Sydney, in 1934, publishing soon after a series of photos from inner-city Pyrmont that focused on telegraph poles and car wheels rather than human elements. Dupain joined the 1930s vogue for surrealism. In 1938 he and 11 other artists formed the Contemporary Camera Groupe and held an exhibition in December of that year. Dupain showed surrealist portraits and nudes. During World War 11, Dupain served with the camouflage unit in New Guinea, transferring to the Department of Information in 1945 — a position that allowed him to develop his ideas about photo-documentary.




    NORMAN CATHCART DECK










DOB 1882 Sydney
DOD: 31st August 1980





    ERIC KEAST BURKE
      c. 1917 - 1920










DOB 16th January 1886 Christchurch, New Zealand
DOD: 31st March 1974 Concord NSW

Photographer and Journalist, only child of Walter Ernest Burke, clerk and his wife Amy Eliza Mary, nee Thompson, both New Zealanders. The family moved to Sydney in March 1904. Keast was educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School and enrolled at the University of Sydney (B.Ec., 1922). After a year in the Signal Corps, Australian Military Forces, on 19 February 1917 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. Embarking for the Middle East in December, he served as a sapper with the Anzac Wireless Squadron, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force. The unit operated at Baghdad and in the field in Persia and on the Kurdistan frontier until November 1919. Burke gained an abiding interest in architecture and archeology. He enjoyed the 'grand fellowship' of army life and was to edit the unit history, 'the memory book of our great adventure', With Horse and Morse in Mesopotamia (1927).

Returning to Sydney, Burke was discharged on 28 January 1920. He became associate-editor under his father of the Australasian Photo-Review, published by Kodak (Australasia) Ltd. At the Shore chapel on 23 November 1925 he married Iris Lily Daniell. In 1932 he published Achievement, a photographic study of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, 'our challenge to Cheops'. Burke exhibited his work in Australia, Europe, London and the United States of America. Gained his associateship of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain in 1938 for a portfolio of male figure studies. That year he was appointed Australian chairman of Kodak International Salons of Photography. During World War II he served as a captain in the Volunteer Defence Corps, worked in intelligence and acted as a 'nightspotter'. He edited Australasian Photo-Review from 1946 until the journal folded in 1956 and was subsequently employed as Kodak's advertising manager.

In 1953 he found Otto Holtermann's collection of Beaufoy Merlin's and Charles Bayliss's glass plates, 'neatly stored in fitted cedar boxes' in 'a small suburban backyard shed'. The negatives disclosed 'every detail of the lives of our gold-fields pioneers; Burke reprinted a selection in Australasian Photo-Review that year and later published an expanded study, Gold and Silver (1973). He lectured on the collection, prepared exhibitions and presented a television series, 'Peeps into the Past with Keast Burke', for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. As consultant in photography to the National Library of Australia, Canberra, he ensured the preservation of historic photographs.

Information from the Australian Dictionary of Photography





        OLEGAS TRUCHANAS











DOB: 22nd September 1923 Siauliai, Lithuania
DOD: 6th January 1972 Gordon River, Tasmania, Australia

Olegas Truchanas, wilderness photographer and conservationist, was son of Eduard Truchan, civil servant, and his wife Tatjana, née Bronovickaja-Baronenko. During World War II Oleg was active in the Lithuanian resistance. He went to Germany in 1944, and began law studies at the University of Munich. After the university closed temporarily in May 1945 he moved to the Baltic displaced persons camp at Garmisch. On 23rd February 1949 he arrived in Melbourne in the Nea Hellas. Sent initially to the Bonegilla migrant reception centre in Victoria, he chose to go to Tasmania where he was assigned to manual labor for the Electrolytic Zinc Co. of Australasia Ltd, Risdon. In 1951 he joined the Hydro-Electric Commission, Hobart, as a meter-reader. Becoming an engineering clerk two years later, he was to work in the area of statistical analysis until 1971.

Deeply attracted to Tasmania's wilderness areas, Truchanas undertook many solitary excursions, on foot and by canoe, into the island's south-west. Black and white and later, color photography became the medium through which he expressed his considerable artistic talents; he won prizes in overseas and Australian competitions. In 1952, climbing alone and without support, he reached the summit of Federation Peak. Twice, in December 1954 and February 1958, he traveled down the Serpentine and Gordon rivers from Lake Pedder to Macquarie Harbour in a self-designed kayak, a feat never before accomplished. On 21st January 1956 at Chalmers Church, Launceston, he married with Presbyterian forms Melva Janet Stocks, a clerical typist.

In October 1963 the Tasmanian government decided that the State's south-west was to be opened up to hydro-electric development. The fears of conservationists were realized in 1965 when the premier Eric Reece announced that there would be "some modification of Lake Pedder National Park" and that the water level of the lake would be raised. Truchanas, placing himself in a difficult position with his employer, gave a series of audio-visual lectures in the Hobart Town Hall and elsewhere in Tasmania, aimed at publicizing the environmental losses that would follow the flooding of the lake. The project went ahead despite the protests. In February 1967 Truchanas's collection of photographs was burnt in the Hobart bushfires that destroyed his home; he immediately set about replacing the lost pictures.

From 1961 Truchanas was a leader and instructor at adventure camps run by the National Fitness Council of Tasmania. A founding member (1968) of the Tasmanian Conservation Trust, he campaigned with other members for the preservation of the Huon pine, which was threatened with extinction by logging; on 5th August 1970 one thousand acres (405 ha) of Huon pine forest on the Denison River were gazetted for protection under the Scenery Preservation Act (1915). In 1971 Truchanas was elected to the council of the Australian Conservation Foundation. At the end of that year he resigned from the H.E.C. and set out to re-visit 'The Splits' on the Gordon River, which he had previously navigated and photographed. On 6th January 1972, while attempting to retrieve his canoe, he slipped on wet rocks and disappeared. His body was found three days later, wedged against a submerged tree. After cremation, his ashes were spread over Lake Pedder. He was survived by his wife and their two daughters and son.

The artist Max Angus said in a tribute that Truchanas's physical, mental and spiritual powers, his passionate love for this island, combined to make him, our chief guide and conscience in times of threat to our national environment and prime source of revelation of the grandeur of our wilderness through the mastery of his camera. He included a selection of Truchanas's best photographs in his book The World of Olegas Truchanas (1975). Mount Truchanas, in the Hamersley Range, Western Australia (1975) and the Truchanas Huon Pine Forest (1990), were named after the conservationist. In 1998 the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, acquired a collection of his photographs; the National Museum of Australia holds a canvas-covered canoe made by him.




    JOHN CYRIL "JACK" CATO  FRPS











DOB 4th April 1889 Launceston, Tasmania
DOD: 14th August 1971 (aged 85) Melbourne, Australia

John Cyril "Jack" Cato FRPS, was a significant Australian portrait photographer in the Pictorialist style, operating in the first half of the twentieth century. He was the author of the first history of Australian photography; The Story of the Camera in Australia (1955).

John Cyril (Jack) Cato, photographer, son of Albert Cox Cato, salesman, and his wife Caroline Louise, née Morgan. At the age of 12 years he did an apprenticeship and studied arts in night school. His father arranged for him to have lessons from a friend who was a metallurgist at Queenstown, where he learnt the properties of metals in photography. John Watt Beattie, a Scottish landscape photographer and also the son of a photographer, introduced young Jack to the medium in 1896. He was further trained in art by Lucien Deschaineux at Launceston Technical School. From 1901 Cato worked under Percy Whitelaw and John Andrew, both local portrait photographers.

In 1906, aged 17, Cato joined Beattie in his Hobart premises and set up his own studio. Later he applied to be official photographer to (Sir) Douglas Mawson's 1911 Australasian Antarctic Expedition. However, Mawson passed him up, and Henri Mallard, in favor of Frank Hurley. Cato traveled that year in Europe finding work with photographers in London, among them H. Walter Barnett, the fashionable society and vice-regal portraitist, and theatre photographer Claude Harris. Through the latter, and with encouragement from Dame Nellie Melba, he pursued freelance work in the theatrical world. Having contracted tuberculosis and, seeking the relief of a warm climate, Cato left England in 1914 to photograph on the expeditions in Rhodesia of Professor Cory of Grahamstown University. He enlisted for war service in South Africa. The anthropological photography earned him a fellowship (1917) of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.

In 1920 Cato returned, still convalescing, to Tasmania, where he operated his own portrait-studio in Hobart and there married Mary Boote Pearce (d.1970) on 24 December 1921. He was President of the Tasmanian Photographers Association in 1923. In 1926 their son John was born and in 1927 they moved to Melbourne. Again with the patronage of Dame Nellie Melba and through her introductions to society and to theatrical circles, he set up a society portrait studio, first at 244 Collins Street, then permanently in Marcus R. Barlow's (1930) Art Deco Howey House at 259 Collins Street. There, he was conveniently located for clients, close to Melbourne's photographic community and the best department stores and boutiques around Collins Street, Melbourne. He put his Pictorialist style, natural gregariousness, love of theatre and technical knowledge to effect in becoming a leader of the trade in Melbourne for two decades.

His society, theatre and advertising photographs were frequently published in magazines and newspapers including The Australian Women's Weekly, The Argus, Table Talk, The Illustrated Tasmanian Mail, The Hobart Mercury, and The Australasian. He maintained links with professional associations and amateur clubs through occasional exhibitions of his best work and was senior vice-president (1938) and a life member of the Professional Photographers Association.

Cato retired from his Melbourne studio in 1946 to begin a career as an author. In addition to a large number of articles in photographic, philatelic and other magazines, as well as serving as chronicler for the Savage Club, he published an autobiography, I Can Take It (1947) and a pictorial documentary, Melbourne (1949).

THE STORY OF THE CAMERA IN AUSTRALIA
Cato's The Story of the Camera in Australia (1955), though it is more populist than academic, is acknowledged as the first Australian national history of the medium. A keen stamp-collector from childhood (also 1935 president of the Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria) he was able to sell his stamps for about £10,000 in 1954 to finance six years of research for this book. He used the La Trobe Library picture and newspaper collections in Melbourne, making only one visit to Sydney and Canberra institutions. Cato also relied on regular personal correspondence with experts, such as letters from Harold Cazneaux, the celebrated Pictorialist, and from Keast Burke in Sydney, a photography historian and campaigner for the recognition of photography as a historical resource and who was engaged in 1964 as consultant to the collections at the Australian National Library.

From 1960–63 Cato was photography columnist for The Age newspaper in Melbourne. He died on 14th August 1971 at Sandringham, Melbourne, survived by a son, photographer John Cato, and a daughter.







PETER LAWRENCE  ARPS
DOB 1882 England - DOD: 1970





    JOHN BERTRAM EATON  FRPS











DOB 1881 England – DOD: 1967

John appears to have taken up photography around 1919, when he began exhibiting in local exhibitions and from 1923, overseas salons such as the annual exhibitions of the Royal Photographic Society and the London Salon.

In 1921, John joined the Victorian Pictorial Workers Society dedicated to the progress of pictorialism.

His progress in salons was rapid and by 1925, he mounted a one man show of his work in Melbourne.

He was an enthusiastic supporter of local societies, being a foundation member of the Melbourne Camera Club, as well as a member of the Victorian Salon and the Australian Salon in 1924 and 1926.
1990 awarded FRPS - Fellow of the  Royal Photographic Society




    HENRI MARIE JOSEPH MALLARD
      circa 1916 by Monte Luke












DOB 9th February 1884 in Balmain
DOD: 21st January 1967 in Balmain

Nationality - Australian

Using his French connections, he secured a position in 1900 with Harrington (later Kodak Pty Ltd) as a sales representative to the French consulate.

20th June 1911 Henri joined the Photographic Society of NSW.

1917 joined the Sydney Camera Circle, whose "manifesto" had been drawn up and signed on 28th November 1916 by the founding group of six photographers; Harold Cazneaux, Cecil Bostock, James Stening, W.S. White, Malcolm McKinnon and James Paton.

He also contributed lectures and technical demonstrations to the Photographic Society of NSW.

Married to Hilda Mary Cousins

He is best known for his documentation of the Australian icon Sydney Harbour Bridge between the late 1920s to the early 1930s. Photographing from precarious vantage points on the bridge itself, sometimes a hundred meters above Sydney Harbour, his work sets the construction against the harbour and the growing city and uses the figures of the workers to represent the scale of this Depression-era engineering feat. His pictures and film of the Bridge were an intentional historical document and the project was self-generated. Between 1930 and 1932, he produced hundreds of stills and film footage.

Prior to his project to document the Bridge, Mallard worked in the Pictorialist style prevailing in the Photographic Society of NSW and though Modernist in composition and design, many of the Bridge images are printed in bromoil. By comparison, Harold Cazneaux''s contemporaneous photographs, taken from around the base of the bridge, retain a romantic Pictorialism. In 1976 the Australian Centre for Photography commissioned David Moore (1927–2003) to make an archive of gelatin silver prints from the collection of Mallard's glass negatives and these were published in association with Sun Books in 1978.




ARTHUR FORD
DOB 1889 - DOD: 1965

Apprenticed as a clerk in the Government Printing Office in 1902. At his own request, Ford transferred to process engraving work (which included instruction in photography). He remained with the Department until retirement in 1953, serving for many years as overseer of the Photographic Branch.

1912 Arthur began exhibiting in local and overseas salons.

1917 joined the Sydney Camera Circle, soon after its foundation.

He would also have belonged to the Photographic Society of NSW.




LEWIS HEY SHARP
DOB 1885 Sydney - DOD: 1965

1915 Hon.Secretary - Photographic Society of NSW

Occasionally lectured on the bromoil process.

He was nominated for membership of the Sydney Camera Circle in the twenties but was not accepted, though his work seems to have been of an equivalent standard.




ICHIRO KAGIYAMA
DOB 1891 - DOD: 1965

1920's Ichiro opened a Studio and photographic equipment shop in Kings Cross.

Ichiro was an influential member of the Photographic Society of NSW and continued to exhibit in Japan through the 1920's.




    GERALD EDGAR JONES  FRPS













DOB 29th August 1880 Wellington - DOD: 1963

1912 December 9th - awarded FRPS - Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.

Exhibitor at the London, Paris, Berlin and American International Photographic Salons.




   JAMES FRANCIS "FRANK" HURLEY  OBE













DOB 15th October 1885 Glebe, Sydney
DOD: 16th January 1962 Collaroy Plateau, NSW

Was an Australian photographer and adventurer. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica and served as an official photographer with Australian forces during both world wars. His artistic style produced many memorable images but he also used staged scenes, composites and photographic manipulation for which he has been criticized on the grounds that it diminished the documentary value of his work.

Frank was an adventurer, photographer and film maker, second son of Edward Harrison Hurley, Lancashire-born printer and trade union official and his wife Margaret Agnes, nee Bouffier, of French descent. At 13 Frank ran away from Glebe Public School and worked in the steel mill at Lithgow, returning home two years later. At night he studied at the local technical school and attended science lectures at the University of Sydney. He became interested in photography, buying his own Kodak box camera for 15 shillings. In 1905 he joined Harry Cave in a postcard business in Sydney and began to earn a reputation for the high technical quality of his work and for the extravagant risks he took to secure sensational images, such as a famous shot taken from the rails in front of an onrushing train. He also gave talks at photographic club meetings and in 1910 mounted the first exhibition of his work in Sydney.

In 1911, Sir Douglas Mawson invited Hurley to be official photographer on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. From December 1911 to March 1913 Hurley worked enthusiastically under arduous conditions, taking both still photographs and movie film and his high spirits made him a popular and valued member of the team. Back in Sydney he rapidly assembled his movie footage and successfully presented it to the public in August as Home of the Blizzard. In November, after a brief filming trip to Java, Hurley joined another expedition to Antarctica to relieve the stranded Mawson.

His fame grew rapidly and he was commissioned by Francis Birtles to film an expedition by car through northern Australia. In October 1914 he joined Sir Ernest Shackleton in yet another Antarctic expedition and produced his most famous still photographs—a series showing the ship Endurance, being gradually destroyed by pack-ice and the heroic struggle for survival of Shackleton's men. He ended the adventure in November 1916 in London where he assembled the film and photographs, including color plates. Early in 1917 he briefly visited South Georgia to secure additional scenes to complete his film, In the Grip of Polar Ice.

In August Hurley joined the Australian Imperial Force as official photographer with the rank of honorary captain. Shocked by the carnage in France and Belgium, he showed his burning resentment in such photographs as Morning at Passchendaele. At the same time he found Ypres, a weird and wonderful sight, with the destruction wildly beautiful. He ran great risks to film exploding shells and clashed with Charles Bean, the official historian, over his desire to merge several negatives into one impressive picture: to Bean such composite pictures were little short of fake. Disgusted with army administration and irked by censorship, Hurley resigned, but was sent to the Middle East, smuggling out some colored photographs. In Palestine he flew for the first time and had many adventures while photographing the Light Horse during the battle of Jericho. In Cairo he met a young opera-singer, Antoinette Rosalind Leighton, daughter of an Indian Army officer and after a ten-day courtship, they were married on 11 April 1918. Later that year in Sydney, Hurley worked furiously to arrange exhibitions of his photographs and to give lecture tours with his films, to great public acclaim and commercial success. In December 1919 he was invited to join the pioneer aviator, Sir Ross Smith, on the final leg of the historic flight from England to Australia. Hurley filmed Australia from the air — The Ross Smith Flight was also highly popular.

Between December 1920 and January 1923 Hurley made two long and well-publicized filming expeditions to the Torres Strait Islands and to Papua and attracted further attention by shipping two small planes to Port Moresby and flying them along the coast. Again, the Papuan films (especially Pearls and Savages released in December 1921) were major commercial successes. He followed them up with a book of traveler's tales and photographs, also called Pearls and Savages, as he was to do with several other of his films.

However, he clashed bitterly with Sir Hubert Murray and the Papuan administration over allegedly bad publicity that he was giving to the Territory through his sensational stories of head-hunters and unexplored jungle wilds and more seriously over allegedly improper methods used to gather a large collection of artefacts for the Australian Museum, Sydney. In 1925 Hurley was refused entrance to Papua to make a fiction film for the Australian-born magnate of the British film industry, Sir Oswald Stoll: the film crew was forced to relocate the production in Dutch New Guinea; Jungle Woman was released in May 1926, followed by Hound of the Deep, made for Stoll on Thursday Island. After spending 1927 as pictorial editor for the Sun in Sydney, Hurley set off on an abortive attempt to fly from Australia to England, then in 1929 joined the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition again under Mawson's command. Two films — Southward ho with Mawson and Siege of the South — were both shown widely in Australia with accompanying lectures from Hurley in 1930-31. He was awarded the Polar Medal and two bars and in 1941 was appointed O.B.E.

The 1930s were no less busy for Hurley, but entailed a more settled life with his family at Vaucluse. He worked with the Cinesound studio as cameraman on four feature films, but his meticulous style did not adapt well to the high pressure of expensive studio productions and Cinesound established him instead as the head of a special documentary unit, to produce films for government and private sponsors. In World War II, Hurley again served as official photographer with the A.I.F. in the Middle East, but the methods that had brought him fame in World War I now caused clashes with younger film makers like Damien Parer, who found him old-fashioned and eccentric. He remained in the Middle East until 1946 making documentary films for the British government, but they attracted little attention. After his return to Australia, he concentrated on still photography and published several books of photographs of Australian landscapes and city portraits. Lecturing and journalism filled more of his time and he continued to travel frequently, although mainly within Australia. He died of myocardial infarction at his home at Collaroy Plateau on 16 January 1962 and was cremated. He was survived by his wife, son and three daughters.

Information from the Australian Dictionary of Photography



Wednesday 21st December 1966  Page 22 - The Australian Women's Weekly (NSW)

"FATHER WANTED US TO BE UP-AND-DOING ALL THE TIME"
SO TONI UP AND DID!
---- SHE WROTE HIS LIFE STORY

TONI HURLEY, of Sydney, followed her father's rule in life - "Find a way, or make one" - when, after long deliberation, she decided to write his biography.

Her father, famous Captain Frank Hurley, had lived an adventurous life as explorer, film-maker, pioneer aviator, author, lecturer; but Toni had never written a book before.

She is Mrs Frank Mooy, mother of two teenagers and she still had to keep up with the housework.

"I simply gritted my teeth, got together the rudiments, typewriter, paper and all the essentials and set to work for five days a week from 9 to 5 and finished my part of the project in 12 months", she told me.

Captain Frank Hurley and his wife soon after their
marriage. He met her in 1918 in Cairo, where he
was official photographer with the Australian forces.


"Every morning I was up early and through the house, ready to start work by 9".

"I dragged an old table into my bedroom and set up the typewriter, books, piles of information I had gathered from all over the place, diaries, everything. I'd work there each day until it was time to get dinner. Then I would just throw an old blanket over the whole mess and leave it.

"Once every two weeks or so I would take a day off and concentrate on spring cleaning one room. This way the house was kept in a reasonable state.

"I did tell my friends to stop calling in to see me, I told them if I wanted to see them I would call on them. But I didn't even get time to do this. Once I started writing I got so interested in it I grudged every minute away from my work-table".

The book is "Once More on My Adventure", published by Ure Smith, Sydney.

"Most of the material was taken direct from my father's diaries, letters and articles; also from his books of news cuttings", Toni said.

"The rest I got from libraries in Sydney and Canberra.

"I used butcher's paper to type the information I gathered, and filled rolls and rolls of it.

"Then for several weeks I absorbed myself in the past and in re-reading all this mass of information. Most of it was quite new to me.

"The 12 months it took me to write the book were sheer hard grind tinged with moments of sadness, but they were the most absorbing I've spent for many years.

"When I finished my manuscript the publishers passed it on to the late Frank Legg, who did a magnificent job of editing it, rearranging information in various chapters, and polishing it up.

"And can you imagine the wonderful feeling I got when I was told that it shared first prize in the Journalists Club competition for biographies?

"I couldn't have done it, wouldn't have attempted it if it hadn't been for my father's diaries, wonderfully descriptive and interesting pieces of writing.

"We didn't know they existed until after he died four years ago, at 76; we found them on the top of a cupboard. Another one, a four-month account of one of his Antarctic trips, I discovered in the Canberra National Library.

Mrs Hurley at her home in the Sydney suburb of Collaroy, with daughter Toni.
The photographs on the wall were taken by Frank Hurley on an Antarctfc expedition.


Captain Hurley in his lifetime produced more films than any other Australian, past or present. He was the holder of three Polar Medals and was awarded the OBE in 1941.

During his career he was official photographer to the 1st Australasian Antarctic Expedition under Sir Douglas Mawson, to the Shackleton Antarctic expedition, to the AIF in World War I. He explored and filmed in Central Australia with Francis Birtles, flew on the Australian lap af the Ross and Keith Smith pioneer flight from England and made various expeditions in New Guinea.

He was official photographer to the later British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research expedition, chief cameraman with Cinesound Productions and official photograper to the AIF in the Middl East in World War II.

He travelled a million miles in every continent. And he found time to produce 63 films and 12 books.

In 1918 he met his bride-to-be, a Spanish - French opera singer in Cairo and brought her back to Sydney. They had four children three girls and a boy.

Toni's twin sister, Adelie, was the only member of the family to pick up a camera. She is well known throughout Australia for her photographic work and was at one time on the staff of the Australian Women's Weekly.

Toni said, "I used to know very little about my father's work and travels, simply because he rarely talked about it. He preferred to live for today and tomorrow.

"And as he was away so much we just didn't get time to know him well. Besides he was a man's man - he had no time for women's frippery conversation. When he was home, if he wasn't taking or developing photographs he was out digging the garden.

"He couldn't bear to see any of us just sitting down drinking coffee and being idle. We had to be up and doing all the time. Even when friends called on him they had to talk to him in the garden while he worked.

"And yet, for all his adventures, his travels around the world, he had a strong Victorian streak. We didn't dare smoke or have a drink in front of him until after World War II".

Toni Hurley is not going to remain a "single book" author. She finds the period after her twelve months stimulating work dull and flat; and is planning to prepare a more detailed account of one of her father's Antarctic expeditions.

"I admire people who write fiction," she says. "But I could never do it. In fact I don't like reading it. I like only medical books and travel books and, as I'm a rapid reader, I've exhausted the stock in our local library.

"That's why I'm looking forward to starting work again".

by GLORIA NEWTON



   CHARLES ROBERT MONTAGUE LUKE










DOB 1885 Geelong, Victoria
DOD: 1962 Sydney

Monte joined the Sydney Camera Circle in 1921 and meetings were henceforth held in his studio until at least the late thirties.

1928 awarded FRPS - Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.

Monte Luke will always be remembered as the man who captured the people of his city, their life and times, through a camera lens. From the early 1920s to the Great Depression, World War Two and into the nineteen-fifties, Monte led from the front as the Sydney photographic studio that carried his name focused on the famous and not-so-famous, the rich and poor, sportsmen and business chiefs, artists and actors.

Charles Robert Montague Luke, who would become known to one and all as Monte, was born in Geelong, Victoria, in 1885. His father, Edmund Thomas Luke, was a pioneer newspaper photographer in Melbourne and passed the skills of the trade on to his son. Monte’s first job was as a messenger and mixer of chemical compounds for the well known suppliers of photographic equipment, Baker & Rouse.

He married a Ballarat girl, Elsie Speed, who would later take over management of his studio. After being appointed official photographer for then theatrical kings J.C. Williamson Ltd, he made three silent movies for them.

In 1919 Monte went into partnership with the Falk Studio, which was located within the historic Strand Arcade in Sydney. The Falk Studio was then well-established as one of Sydney’s most renowned photographic studios, having been commissioned to take the official portraits of the Duke and Duchess of York when the royal couple came to Australia for the Federation celebrations of 1901.
Soon Monte set up his own business, also situated in the Strand, in the old studios of another well-known Sydney photographer L W Appleby. He specialized in social portraits and weddings and also gained recognition for his work in advertising.

Monte was invited to join the influential Sydney Camera Circle in 1921 and many meetings of this elite group of photographers, which had been formed in 1916 with the objective of promoting a distinctive Australian style of pictorial photography, were held in his Studio. Two of the most prominent founding members of the Sydney Camera Circle were Harold Cazneaux – often described as the father of modern Australian photography – and Cecil Bostock, later the tutor of Max Dupain, who would go on to international acclaim for his black and white Sydney beach scenes, landscapes and architectural studies.

The Sydney Camera Circle moved local photography beyond the low-toned British style of print that was then the norm by introducing, as the visionary Cazneaux put it, "truly Australian sunshine effects". Monte embraced this new direction and his light-filled landscapes took their place alongside his striking portraits as his signature. A lavish book of these landscapes, was published in the 1930s and the photographs were exhibited in the United States and Europe, winning a string of prizes.

While his good friend Harold Cazneaux chronicled the changing face of Sydney, Monte recorded the faces of its people. He also accompanied another friend, Walter Burley Griffin, on the acclaimed architect’s journey to survey the site which is today Canberra, the national capital. Monte recorded that historic mission with what was even then regarded as an "old" movie camera.

In a way, he was following his father’s footsteps, for in 1902 Edmund Luke had accompanied the Senate delegation that toured various sites in New South Wales and Victoria, trying to determine where Australia’s new capital should be situated. A number of Edmund’s photographs of that expedition are held by the National Library in Canberra, including photographs of the senators at various sites around what is the ACT, from Lake George in the north to Dalgety in the south.




   SIR LIONEL ARTHUR LINDSAY










DOB 17th October 1874 Creswick, Victoria
DOD: 22nd May 1961 Melbourne, Victoria

1908 joined the Photographic Society of NSW.

1905 to 1908 Lionel had a studio.

1911 Lionel was most active, when he won a medal for his oil pigment prints at the annual exhibition of the Photographic Society of NSW.




GEORGE JAMES MORRIS
DOB 1884 Sydney - DOD: 1959

George began exhibiting around 1925 as a member of the Sydney Camera Circle and the Photographic Society of NSW.

George served as secretary of the Sydney Camera Circle for many years but resigned in 1936 after a conflict over the election of R.V. Simpson.

One of his last activities was joining the Contemporary Camera Group in 1938.




    JAMES SYDNEY STENING










DOB 1870 Sydney - DOD: 1953

James was one of the founders of the Photographic Society of NSW in 1894

As well as serving as an officer of the Photographic Society of NSW for many years, including President 1917.

James was active in the Ashfield District Camera Club with friends Frank Hurley and Norman Deck.

James was among the first to recognize Harold Cazneaux's work and instigated his one-man show in 1909.

James also became a founder member of the Sydney Camera Circle in late 1916.




KIICHIRO ISHIDA
DOB 1886 Masuda, Japan - DOD: 1957

Kiichiro Ishida was born in 1886 and died in 1957 in Akita Prefecture, Japan. In 1919 he was transferred to the Sydney branch of a large Japanese wool trading company in Macquarie Place. Ishida bought his first camera at this time, becoming engrossed in photography after meeting Ichiro Kagiyama, a Japanese migrant and well-established professional photographer living in Sydney.

1921 was invited to join the Sydney Camera Circle, where he was influenced by such leading Australian photographers as Harold Cazneaux, Henri Mallard and Monte Luke.

Ishida produced exceptional works of the Australian landscape and Sydney’s urban environment between 1919 and 1923.

Ishida’s photographs from the Sydney period express a clean beauty of the vast, dry, bright landscapes of Australia, or views of the city streets and people who inhabit them and in all of them we can feel the enjoyment he obviously derived from creating them.

Ishida stayed in Australia until the end of 1923 and during this antipodean period his photography matured quickly. He produced idyllic and poetic landscapes, beach scenes, portraits, studies of trees and the harbour. When Ishida left Sydney to return to Japan he asked the Circle members for some of their best prints to take with him. In 1924 he exhibited the works by the members of the Sydney Camera Circle along with his own photographs at the Shiseido Gallery in Ginza.

Ishida specialized in the bromoil method of manually printing photographs and was to create a new vogue for this technique, becoming one of the leading photographers of his day.

He continued his quest to create art through photography, exhibiting his work mainly at the Japan Photographic Society, capturing that period's unique modern view of nature in beautiful photographs.




   HAROLD PIERCE CAZNEAUX










DOB 30th March 1878 Wellington, New Zealand
DOD: 19th June 1953

Harold's parents; Pierce Mott Cazneau, an English-born photographer and his wife Emily Florence, née Bentley, a colorist and miniature painter from Sydney.

Harold Pierce Cazneau, added an "x" to his surname in 1904 to acknowledge his Huguenot ancestry.

1907 he joined the Photographic Society of NSW and showed photographs at the members exhibition.

1909 Cazneaux was sufficiently established to mount a one-man exhibition in Australia, this was exhibited in the Photographic Society of NSW rooms.

Was Australia’s greatest pictorialist photographer; a pioneer whose style had an indelible impact on the development of Australian photographic history. He was a founder of the Pictorialist Sydney Camera Circle whose "manifesto" had been drawn up and signed on 28th November 1916 by the founding group of six photographers which included, Mr Cecil Bostock, Mr Harold Pierce Cazneaux, Mr Malcolm McKinnon, Mr James Paton, Mr James Stenning and Mr W.S. White, (later joined by Henri Mallard).

In 1938 Cazneaux also exhibited with the Contemporary Camera Groupe but became increasingly disheartened by the modern trends in photography, which he felt were cold and mechanistic.

1938 awarded Hon.FRPS - Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.

1946 to 1947 - Honorary Corresponding Member of Council of the Royal Photographic Society.


BIOGRAPHY

Harold Cazneaux

Wikipedia - Cazneaux



July 1953  AP-R Magazine

TRIBUTE  to HAROLD PIERCE CAZNEAUX (1878 - 1953) written by Keast Burke

It is with sincere regret that we record the passing late on the morning of the 19th June 1953, of Australia's vetran pictorialist and grand old man of photography.

At the funeral there was a full representation of members of the Sydney Camera Circle, with which group our good friend had been associated from its inception, while the profession was represented by Val Waller, Monte Luke and Laurence Le Guay.

In the memorable words of Jack Cato on the occasion of The Nation's Tribute of October last . . . "He became, for this country, photography's chief spokesman - its leading lecturer, teacher, adviser, demonstrator and judge. He was forever writing articles, reviews and commentaries and reporting abroad on the work and standards of the year.cIn all this he never hoarded a secret nor sought an advantage . . . 'Caz' has had a full and a wonderful life; he's a kindly modest soul who never made an enemy or lost a friend. He has known struggle and tragedy and loss - and he has also known great achievement, though modestly disinclined to admit the latter. When one begins to talk of 'Caz' one always finds oneself returning to the man himself, to the gentle, modest, kindly man who ever gave so much of himself to others".




WILLIAM HEATH MOFFITT
DOB 1888 Sydney
DOD: 6th April 1948

William was born in Sydney and trained as a solicitor, later becoming a partner in the firm McDonell and Moffitt. He took up photography around 1920 and joined the Sydney Camera Circle in 1927.

In the 1930's Moffitt developed a distinctive, very graphic style of bromoiling probably using a series of paper negatives to reduce the image to a flat pattern of shape and line. In August 1947 Moffitt wrote his only article on photography, 'The Status of Pictorial Photography', for the A.P.R., in which he defended the pictorialists' right to use such processes as bromoil to achieve an artistic effect. The article was much admired by Cazneaux as a defence against post war criticisms of the 'fakery' of pictorialists' images.


The following was written by Harold Cazneaux in 1948.

This year has witnessed yet another gap in the ranks of Australia's internationally recognized pictorial photographers.

I had known Mr Moffitt and his work for many years, but it was really only when he was elected as a member of the Sydney Camera Circle that his fine pictures became generally known to most amateurs, He was always of a quiet and retiring nature, one who never sought the limelight, yet as an artist with the camera and pigment he established himself as one of Australia's most individual and brilliant exponents of pictorial photography.

More recently, especially with the arrival of the so called Modern Trend in Photography, there has been considerable criticism of the Bromoil process. I, for one, was particularly pleased when Mr Moffitt accepted your editorial (from the Editor of the APR magazine)invitation to answer that criticism.

This he did in a convincing and impressive manner when his article duly appeared in the magazine; the answer was sound and logical - which was only to be expected, for as a critic and speaker on pictorial photography, Mr Moffitt was always worth listening to. His instinct in assessing the pictorial content of a print was always clear cut and dependable and what is more important, ever of value to those who showed him their work.

His chosen subject matter was always the Australian Landscape; on his trips to the country he would wander hand in hand with nature and her varying moods. Just how successful he was in his many interpretations may be judged from the splendor of the portfolio which accompanied his article; I feel that every reader must treasure this magnificent offering - the more so by reason of the fact that it represents, I believe, the most complete and representative group of his work yet to be published.




   JULIAN AUGUSTUS ROMAINE SMITH










DOB: 5th December 1873 Camberwell, Surrey, England
DOD: 13th November 1947 East Melbourne

Julian took up photography around 1925 and by 1927 was exhibiting work in the annual London Salon.

Julian was a founder of the Victorian Salon and member of the Melbourne Camera Club. He worked almost exclusively in portraiture as the studio portrait suited his busy schedule which would have made outdoor work difficult. To obtain greater richness in the color of his prints, Julian developed his own method of over exposure, forced development in a hot bath using ferry cyanide to reduce the highlights as required, but which left depth in the dark tones.


1930 FRPS - Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society
1944 Hon.FRPS - Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society


Saturday 15th November 1947  Page 8 - The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.)

OBITUARY - DR JULIAN SMITH, NOTED SURGEON, PHOTOGRAPHER
Dr Julian Smith, eminent Melbourne surgeon and amateur photographer of wide repute, died on Thursday night at his home in East Melbourne, after a short illness. He was 74. Dr Smith enjoyed a reputation as one of Australia's most brilliant all round surgeons. He was senior surgeon at St Vincent's Hospital for a number of years, was recognized also as an excellent tutor and was a foundation Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. After his retirement from active practice in 1936 Dr Smith invented a pump which has greatly expedited the operation of blood transfusion from donor to patient. It was widely used by the Australian Army Medical Corps in the war. Dr Smith was probably better known to the public as an artist of the camera. His portrait studies, mostly of men, have been exhibited abroad. He had the distinction of being one of the only two photographers whose works have twice been selected by the Royal Photographic Society as the outstanding photographs of the year. Dr Smith was a native of Surrey, England, but came to Australia in boyhood and was educated at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide. He is survived by a widow, three sons — Dr Orme Smith, Dr Geoffrey Smith (dentist), Dr Hubert Smith and a daughter, Roma (Mrs Page). The funeral yesterday was private. Bishop McKie conducted the service.


THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY HAROLD CAZNEAUX IN 1947
THE LATE Dr JULIAN SMITH  Hon.FRPS

The photographic world will long mourn the loss of Dr Julian Smith Hon.FRPS, who died on the 14th November 1947.

He was a remarkable man, an individual of striking personality, possessed of great driving energy; to whatever he put his heart and mind - that was always successful. To many, he seemed to wear a mantle of severity, but his piercing eyes and intense concentration were but part of his remarkable character - at heart he was a lovable and kindly man.

As is generally known, Dr Julian's hobby, pictorial portraiture, was adopted as a means of relaxation from his professional work and strange as this may seem, this hobby in turn became a driving force, demanding great concentration of energy and mental strain. He would come home after a long, tiring day and in the evening turn to his camera and lights, gathering his friends or models around him and workiong well on into the "wee small hours."

It was typical of the man that he should keep faith with the Adelaide Camera Club in respect of a promise made for a Salon Invitation Panel of his new work. Fifteen pictures were sent across; all were new, successful and dominant in their technique and interpretations.

Dr Julian Smith has left us a great memory, several published stories of his photographic credo and his hundreds of amazing portraits, the whole forming an incentive and an inspiration to all to carry the banner of pictorial photography along the path he has so ably pioneered.




    DAMIEN PETER PARER










DOB 1st August 1912 Malvern, Melbourne, Victoria
DOD: 17th September 1944

The Parer family home was on King Island, South Australia.

Occupation - Australian cameraman and award-winning war cinematographer.

Damien was an Australian war photographer. He became famous for his war photography of the Second World War and was killed by Japanese machine gun fire at Peleliu, Palau.

In 1923, he and his brother, Adrian, were sent as boarders to St Stanislaus College in Bathurst and St Kevin's College, Melbourne. He joined the school's camera club, which was organized by Father Templeton and Damien decided that he wanted to be a photographer, rather than a priest.

During the depression in 1929 decided to become a professional photographer but found no jobs available and his father decided to send back to school at St Kevin's, a Christian brothers school in east Melbourne. While still at school Damien's images won first prize in a photographic competition organized by the Melbourne Argus. Damien used the money to purchase a speed Graflex, a sturdy, cumbersome camera used by all the professionals of the period. Later Damien came to value the flexibility of the new 35mm still cameras such as the Contax and Eyemo movie camera.

Parer obtained an apprenticeship with Arthur Dickinson. He said later that he learnt most about photography from Dickinson and Max Dupain. He finished his apprenticeship in 1933.

He married Elizabeth Marie Cotter on 23rd March 1944 and his son, producer Damien Parer, was born after his father had died.




    FRANCIS JAMES MORTIMER










DOB 1874 Portsea, Portsmouth, England
DOD: 27th July 1944

Francis James Mortimer was born in 1874 in Portsea, Portsmouth, England. His father was a dental surgeon whose interest in photography led to his being a co-founder of the Portsmouth Amateur Photographic Society. The senior Mortimer shared his leisure passions of photography and sailing with his young son. Eventually, the boy was photographing yachtsmen like a professional with a waterproof camera he made. Mr Mortimer quickly established himself as a pioneer of yacht photography, learning how lighting in front and behind sails produced the most dramatic results. He also discovered that conventional rules did not apply to nautical photography. He preferred a box camera for portability and rather than using screens or orthochromatic plates, he found that sunlight alone provided the most startling contrast to the sky.

Francis James Mortimer FRPS was one of the pioneers of pictorial photography, with the sea as his favorite subject. Born in Portsmouth, Mortimer was surrounded by the sailing life and he was often seen climbing up rocky cliffs or braving the waves alongside sailors in their boats, with his self-made waterproof camera by his side.

Mortimer was also known for his innovative techniques, such as using multiple composite negatives – the Edwardian version of Photoshop and the use of bromoil, in which artist’s pigments and oils were used alongside the usual photographic chemicals. Through such techniques, Mortimer pushed the boundaries to produce images that he felt enhanced the reality of the natural world and pushed photography squarely into the realm of fine art.

When not photographing seascapes and sailing life, Mortimer also photographed women in various settings, many of which also incorporated water or the seaside. In addition to these celebrations of femininity in nature, his other work featuring women ranged from intimate portraits to documentary-style shots of women in the workplace.

1916 he was elected President of the Camera Club. He appreciated the distinction; but the recognition of his work in this field that brought him the greatest pleasure was a summons he received during the war to the Front to advise Royal Headquarters Flying Corps on the subject of aerial photography.

With the onset of World War I, Mr Mortimer realized that his photographic manipulations could serve as an important propagandist tool to arouse British patriotic fervor again against Germany. Using his vast collection of nautical negatives, Mr. Mortimer created dramatic wartime images of British sailors clinging to a lifeboat after being targeted by a German submarine. All of his battle images were staged, as civilians were not authorized to photograph actual combat. Perhaps Mortimer's most reproduced photograph is the "Gate of Goodbye", which is actually a combination of negatives of soldiers receiving emotional farewells from their families amid the backdrop of London's Victoria Station.

Not only did he spend many years as editor of some of the best known photographic publications of his time, such as Amateur Photographer (1908-1944) and Photograms of the Year (1912 – 1944), he was also a founding member of the London Salon of Photography and a member of the Linked Ring. As such, Mortimer became one of the most influential figures in British photography and his fame soon spread around the world, leading to exhibitions in New York and election to the Australian Salon and Sydney Camera Club.

1904 elected as a member of the Royal Photographic Society
1905 awarded FRPS - Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society
1932 awarded Hon.FRPS - Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society
1940 - 1942 President of the Royal Photographic Society
1944 awarded Royal Photographic Society Progress Medal.
Reference - The Camera Club (Est 1855); the Historic Camera web site; the Royal Photographic Society web site.




    JOHN KAUFFMANN










DOB 29th December 1864 Truro, South Australia
DOD: 29th November 1942 South Yarra, Melbourne

Art photographer John Kauffmann was born at Truro, near Kapunda in South Australia, the son of Alexander Kauffmann the local storekeeper. The family moved to Adelaide in 1868 and in the early 1880s John Kauffmann worked as a clerk in the office of Adelaide architect J.H. Grainger. In 1886 he attended evening art classes run by Harry P. Gill, director of the Adelaide School of Design. In 1887 Kauffmann traveled to England where he worked in the office of a firm of London architects. Here he spent time photographing and sketching on weekend and holiday excursions into rural England and it was here that he became interested in pictorial photography and decided to pursue a career as an artist photographer. He spent three years studying chemistry at Zurich University followed by experience at a fashionable Vienna portrait studio and a year studying photo-technology in Bavaria. By the time he returned to Adelaide in 1897 he was well versed in the art of pictorial photography and had the necessary technical knowledge to practise it successfully.

John was elected a member of the South Australian Photographic Society in July 1897 and showed specimen prints at that meeting. The Austral Company of Melbourne made bromide enlargements for Kauffmann which he submitted to the Society of Artists in Sydney for inclusion in their annual exhibition, but the Society would not accept photography. However, the prints were shown in Sydney by the photographic firm of Baker and Rouse and were described by one Sydney newspaper as "some of the most perfect photographic work ever seen, clear and truly artistic". A week later the Australasian Photo-Review said the prints were "full of detail, yet beautifully soft, Kauffmann is an artist as well as a photographer". The prints were also shown in Adelaide, where the Observer reported: "In the course of his studies abroad Mr Kauffmann, made a number of beautiful photographs of scenery, principally in Switzerland; and Messrs. Baker and Rouse, the well-known photographers in Rundle-street, have produced enlargements of them on the Pearl bromide paper specially manufactured by the firm in Melbourne. These reproductions are exquisite in the delicacy and gradation of the tones, giving a depth and softness singularly attractive to the eye of the lover of artistic effect, bearing eloquent testimony to the quality of the paper and the process There are views of Lake Maggiore, Moravian village scenes, and a most delightful sketch of an old village near Zurich. The majority of the pictures present alluring landscape, water, and cloud interpretations of Nature, and are well worth inspection". In 1899 John Kauffmann won first and third prizes in the landscape category of the Photographic Society of NSW's Inter-Colonial Exhibition, and in 1901 was a judge, along with his former art teacher H.P. Gill, at the South Australian Photographic Society's annual exhibition, the first at which awards were made. At the May 1902 meeting of the South Australian Photographic Society lantern slides made by members were shown and subjected to criticism. A "novelty" introduced by Kauffmann was a series of slides produced by the carbon process. The colors were numerous and in some instances peculiarly suited to the subject of the picture. John Kauffmann’s work stimulated the South Australian Photographic Society's interest in pictorial photography and while he did act as a judge and show his work at the Society’s meetings and exhibitions he did not write articles or give lectures and demonstrations at meetings of either his own or other photographic societies.

An interview with John Kauffmann was published in the Australian Photographic Journal on 20 December 1907: "When Mr Kauffmann, of Adelaide, arrived in Sydney a week or so ago, we felt that it was our duty to levy on the gifted and accomplished photographer so that our readers should know more of the man and his work, much of which has been reproduced in the A.P.J. for some years past and it goes without saying, has created quite a circle of admirers. It will be already known to our readers that Mr Kauffmann has had three pictures accepted this year at the Royal Photographic Society, London, being one more than last year". Mr Kauffmann, a South Australian by birth, has had the supreme advantage of a ten years, sojourn in Europe, where he has had the opportunity of studying the works of advanced pictorialists, both on the Continent and in England. Inspired by their aims, he found the camera held a new meaning for him, and he indefatigably sought for technical perfection of method, so that he could render nature according to his own lights. He acknowledges being largely influenced by such powerful workers as Drs. Heneberg and Spitzer, Hans Watzek, Heinrich Kuhn and other leading members of the Austrian school, which school, at the present time, holds an unique position for strength and originality amongst the great pictorial schools of the world. Asked as to his opinion of pictorial photography in Australia, Mr Kauffmann said it is but slowly gaining ground. Of the club of which he is a member, the Kapunda Photographic Club, he speaks in warm terms and states that the members are aiming high, and many of them will yet be heard of. We had the pleasure of looking through Mr Kauffmann’s portfolio of photographs and must say that it is a rare treat to see such extremely excellent all-round work by one man.

Kapunda was a former copper mining town about 12 miles from Truro, the town where Kauffmann was born and a short train journey from his home in Adelaide. One Kapunda amateur photographer, Miss Dorothy Warner, has recalled camera excursions she had with Kauffmann when she was a teenager. The Camera Club held exhibitions from time to time and received entries from city and country areas and Mr Kauffmann came there as judge and came many times later as guest of my parents. He and my father toured the country nearby in search of good subject matter. His home was at that time with his sister in North Adelaide. Later he went to Melbourne where he set up a studio and did some very fine work… It was from him that I learned so much for on his visits to us we developed and printed together, much of it carbon work. He and I visited Baker’s Flat, an old Irish settlement the other side of the Kapunda copper mine. The houses were quaint thatched places where very aged Irish born people lived. Pigs, poultry and humans all had access to these places. A photographer’s paradise. It was from a photograph I took there, a carbon print, that I got the champion prize of a silver medal at the Women’s Work Exhibition.

At the October 1907 meeting of the Kapunda Photographic Club the president referred to, the success of Mr John Kauffmann, a member of the club, who had three pictures accepted by the Royal Photographic Society of London. He believed that two of the three subjects were Kapunda pictures – views of Baker’s Flat. In response to remarks about the success of Kapunda amateurs at recent exhibitions the Hon.Secretary, Thomas Warner, said that "whatever success his daughter or members of the club had achieved in pictorial photography, was mainly due to the great assistance rendered by Mr Kauffmann. Last year we had the pleasure of congratulating Mr Kauffmann on getting two of his pictures accepted by the London Royal; but this year he has gone one better and we are delighted to hear that three examples of his work have found their place on the walls of the Royal. It is undoubtedly a great honor, especially as one of his pictures, "Thro the Woods", accepted by such a powerful body as the Royal Society Hanging Committee, had been adversely criticized in one of the Adelaide papers recently. It showed that in England they had very different opinions of the work to what somebody in Adelaide had. The other two pictures accepted were "The Lonely Cottage" and "The Brow of the Hill", the two latter being views of Baker’s Flat, Kapunda. That the club send its hearty congratulations to Mr Kauffmann (who is on a visit to Victoria) was unanimously agreed to".

Around 1909 John Kauffmann moved to Melbourne where he exhibited in local and international salons and eventually opened his own studio c.1917. In 1919 The Art of John Kauffmann was published, the first monograph about an Australian photographer. The book contained twenty of his photographs and a text written by Leslie Beer, editor of Harrington’s Photographic Journal.

To those outside his circle of friends John Kauffmann appeared to be vain and aloof, but to those who knew him well he was affectionate and entertaining. Melbourne photographer Jack Cato described him as, never quite one of us, those years in Europe having left him a confirmed Continental. He was 6ft. 3 ins. tall, very dignified and quiet, and seriously preoccupied with his thoughts. I knew him for thirty years, saw him almost every week, yet never knew him to smile. He was one of the best-dressed men in Melbourne; one would always note his "Red Indian" profile as he strolled "The Block" complete with yellow gloves, cane, spats and his pince-nez on a silk cord. He was usually off to an art exhibition, a chamber music recital, or an alfresco lunch in the Botanical Gardens, where he could find again something of the spirit of the Vienna Woods.




    CECIL WESTMORELAND BOSTOCK














DOB 1884
DOD: 27th December 1939

Cecil was born in England. He emigrated to New South Wales, Australia, with his parents in 1888. His father, George Bostock, was a bookbinder who died a few years later in 1892. Bostock had an important influence on the development of photography in Australia, initiating a response to the strong sunlight. He presided over the transition from Pictorialism to Modernism and was a mentor to several famous Australian photographers: notably Harold Cazneaux and Max Dupain.

1913 September, joined the Photographic Society of NSW. On the 23rd June 1914 and 22nd June 1915 became assistant Hon.Secretary of the Photographic Society of NSW.

1916 became Vice-President of the Photographic Society of NSW.

1916 - The Sydney Camera Circle was formed and Cecil was a Foundation member.

Examples of Cecil's work appeared periodically in the pages of the "Harringtons Photographic Journal" for many years and been published in the "Amateur Photographer", "Photograms of the Year" and "American Annual of Photography". He also exhibited at the London Salon, the American Salon, the Royal Photographic Society and in the Colonial competition.

Whilst in London during 1919, Cecil joined the Royal Photographic Society and the London Camera Club, at the latter he was able to meet most of the noted workers in London. While in England he secured a collection of very fine negatives of Cornwall and London.

Cecil was instrumental in forming the Contemporary Camera Groupe, which was designed to unite artists and photographers. The Groupe held a first and only exhibition in December 1938, for which he designed the catalog.

THE SYDNEY CAMERA CIRCLE
1916 November 28th, a group of six photographers met at Bostock's - Little Studio in Phillip Street, Sydney to form the Pictorialist Sydney Camera Circle. This initially included Mr Cecil Bostock, Mr Harold Pierce Cazneaux, Mr Malcolm McKinnon, Mr James Paton, Mr James Stenning, Mr W.S. White and they were later joined by Henri Mallard. A manifesto was drawn up by Cecil and signed by all six attendees who pledged - to work and to advance pictorial photography and to show our own Australia in terms of sunlight rather than those of greyness and dismal shadows. This established what was known as the Sunshine School of photography. The style of pictorialism practiced by Australians was concerned with the play of light, sunshine and shadow and the attention to nature and the landscape and had an affinity with the Heidelberg School of painters.

Olive Cotton joined the Circle in 1939 as the first female member.

Cecil edited and designed the catalogs for the Australian Salon exhibitions in 1924 and 1926. The logo and Declaration of the Sydney Camera Circle were also his work.

Publication by Cecil - Cameragraphs of the year 1924 - a souvenir of the first exhibition of the Australian Salon of Photography.

Publication by Cecil - Cameragraphs of the year 1926 - selections from the second exhibition of the Australian Salon of Photography.



Tuesday 2nd January 1940  Page 8 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

DEATH of Mr CECIL WESTMORELAND BOSTOCK

Mr Cecil Westmoreland Bostock, who died on 27th December 1939, was well known in Sydney as a photographer gifted with distinctive design and artistry. His works were exhibited at many salons in Australia and overseas. Mr Bostock served in the last war with the A.I.F., and was subsequently transferred to the photographic section of the War Records Department in London.




CHARLES HENRY KERRY
DOB 3rd April 1857
DOD: 26th May 1928

Charles was an Australian photographer noted for his photographs that contributed to the development of the Australian national psyche and romance of the Bush.

Kerry was born on Bobundra Station in the Monaro region of New South Wales. He began working in the Sydney photo studio of A.H. Lamartiniere in 1875. When Lamartiniere fled from creditors a few years later, Kerry took charge of the company, paying debts and turning around the business. Initially Kerry specialized in portraits but branched into photographing Sydney scenery and society. He was also active in the postcard business. Eventually Kerry turned this small studio into Australia's largest photographic establishment.

In 1885 Kerry was asked to prepare an exhibit of Aboriginal portraits and corroboree pictures for the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition. In 1890, the Governor of New South Wales, Lord Carrington appointed Kerry as his official photographer.

In 1891 Kerry was commissioned to photograph the Jenolan and Yarrangobilly Caves. An innovative artist, Kerry used the still-experimental technique of magnesium flash powder to capture the interior of the Jenolan Caves. By 1900 Kerry handled the major illustrations for the local press. In 1908 he photographed the visit of the American Fleet and the Burns-Johnson heavyweight boxing match. To gain an aerial view of the arrival of the Great White Fleet he mounted a camera on a box kite.

In 1895, Kerry began a Squatter's Service, traveling around the colony photographing squatter's land, homesteads, families and livestock.

Charles Kerry first visited Kiandra in 1894 to pursue his mining interests, he returned in 1896 on a photographic tour. The following year with practically no skiing experience was assisted by group including Kiandra ski club members on an historic photography tour to the summit of Mount Kosciuszko. In 1909 he was elected Founding President of the Kosciusko Alpine Ski Club, which led to the opening up of the area for skiing and the naming of a run after him.

By 1898 he had the largest photographic establishment in Australia, a three floor building at 310 George Street, Sydney.

In 1937 Sir Frank Packer named his son after Kerry. Kerry Packer became Australia's richest man.

Kerry's son G.E. Marni Kerry was an early Australian aviator and friend of Charles Kingsford Smith.




    LUDOVICO HART










DOB 1836 England
DOD: 1919 Waimea in Hawaii

Ludovico Wolfgang Hart was born in England in about 1836, the son of Charles Hart. While he developed a sufficient talent as an organist, a legacy of his music teacher and church organist father, Ludovico's talents were to lie in a very different field. He enlisted in the Royal Engineers for four years, but left in 1858 to pursue a career in photography.

Following his publication of an instruction book in 1857, Photography Simplified: A Practical Treatise on the Collodion and Albumen processes, upon leaving the army Hart readily found work in Paris with the established French photographic firm, Disderi et Cit.

In 1877, Hart arrived in Australia having been brought out by the New South Wales Government Printing Office to introduce new photographic techniques. In late 1879, he advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald that he was going in to partnership with Ferdinand Roux with the purpose 'of carrying on a Photographic Business generally and Photo-mechanical Printing Establishment'.

Possibly due to the rivalry between several Melbourne photographers vying for the contract to photograph the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition, it appears the Exhibition Trustees looked interstate, to Sydney and selected Hart to take the official court photographs of the Exhibition. An article published in the Australian Photographic Journal on 20 March 1896, explains that: Ludovico Hart settled in Melbourne in 1880, photographing the various courts of the Exhibition in that year, for the Commissioners, on 12 by 10 wet-plates, sixty in number.

After the Exhibition, Hart remained in Melbourne, becoming the Instructor in Photography at the Working Men's College in 1888 and establishing the Melbourne Camera Club in 1891. Due to the slowing economic environment in the late 1880s, Ludovico Hart, of High-street, St. Kilda, photographer, was listed as insolvent due to a 'falling-off in business'. However, he continued as a commercial photographer throughout the 1890s, working from 42 Arnold Street in South Yarra, until his retirement in late 1900. In his final years, Hart settled in Hawaii where he died at Waimea in 1919.

Reference:  Museum Victoria




        TOWNSEND DURYEA















DOB 1823 Long Island, New York, United States of America
DOD: 13 December 1888 Balranald, NSW, Australia

Townsend is the son of Hewlet Duryea. He was trained as a mining engineer and his experience in the art of photography dated from 1840. He also took an art course. He arrived at Melbourne in 1852 and next year entered a studio partnership with Alexander McDonald in Bourke Street. In 1855 he moved to Adelaide and in February opened daguerreotype rooms over Prince's store at the corner of King William and Grenfell Streets. Later that year Townsend and his brother Sanford formed the partnership of Duryea Bros. They were the first photographers known to have worked outside Adelaide; by 1856 they had visited Auburn, Burra, Clare, Kapunda, Goolwa, Milang, Port Elliot and their near-by villages. In 1857 Duryea used experience gained in America as a shipbuilder to build the thirty-foot cutter Coquette behind the Maid and Magpie Hotel at Magill. Though the cutter was said to be for the River Murray trade, it was used mainly in racing; stakes in private challenges were sometimes £100 a side. Duryea was also interested in copper finds near Wallaroo and by February 1861 a fine lode of copper had been cut on section 471, the property of 'Mr Duryea and others'. Within a few months the Duryea Mining Association owned fifteen mineral sections in the area.

In 1863 Townsend dissolved the partnership with his brother. His studio was the most popular in Adelaide, patronized by governors, visiting dignitaries and Adelaide's leading citizens. As well as portraits he produced many views, including several notable panoramas of Adelaide. In 1872 he photographed almost all the surviving old colonists and made their portraits into a large mosaic comprising some 675 cartes-de-visite. Duryea was chosen as official photographer in the royal visit of 1867. On 9 November the Duke of Edinburgh posed at Duryea's King William Street studio for the first royal portraits made in Australia. Duryea then accompanied the official party throughout the visit, traveling in a specially prepared photographer's van. By the early 1870s Duryea's panoramas, royal portraits and prizes won in Society of Arts photographic competitions had made him famous. He achieved his high standard with the help of skilled operators. Short in build he was extremely energetic, of 'vigorous mind and keen intelligence, his whole character bearing the impress of sterling integrity'. Duryea always made full use of the advertising facilities offered by newspapers and almanacs. His career as a photographer was cut short when his studio and entire collection of 50,000 negatives were destroyed by fire on 18 April 1875. This loss was a serious blow to Duryea and historians alike, as the plates were the best record of early South Australian colonial life ever made. After the fire Duryea moved to the Riverina district of New South Wales and took up a selection near Yanga Lake. In his later years he was crippled by a stroke and became an invalid. He died on 13 December 1888 after a buggy accident and was buried at Parkside near Balranald.

Duryea was married twice in America: first to Madalina and second about 1852 to Elizabeth Mary Smith who accompanied him to Adelaide. In Adelaide on 22 May 1872 he married Catherine Elizabeth Friggins. He was survived by a son and daughter of the first marriage, four sons and a daughter of the second and three sons and two daughters of the third. Several of his sons and grandsons became photographers.

Written by R. J. Noye.

Information from the Australian Dictionary of Photography



December 1894  Page 9 - THE PHOTOGRAPHIC REVIEW OF REVIEWS

Mr. Townsend Duryea, of Adelaide, is the gentleman whose portrait occupies the professional photographer's niche this month. He is the son of his father, Mr. Townsend Duryea, who started in business in Adelaide as long ago as 1854, when there was more money to be made there, and less professional piety than there is now. The original of the portrait is one of the oldest photographers in South Australia. He started in business for himself some twenty odd years ago at Moonta, and has been established in Adelaide for over ten years. His present studio in Rundle-street is one of the front rank resorts for people who want their photos, taken in that corner of the continent; for somehow it has come to be generally understood that “Duryea” believes in sending out nothing but good work and getting a good price for it. This practice pays him, because there are still a lot of old-fashioned folk in the world who hang on to the old notion that exceptional cheapness is always more or less allied with a suspicion of nastiness.