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A Century in Focus Teachers Resource.Indd NTURY IN FO A CE CUS Education Resource 1840s–1940s So hy uth grap Australian Photo Art Gallery of South Australia North Terrace, Adelaide, 5000 9 November 2007 - 28 January 2008 Image: H H Tilbrook, 1848-1937, Corset Rock, 1898, gelatin-silver photograph, R. J. Noye Collection, Gift of Douglas and Barbara Mullins 2004, Art Gallery of South Australia This exhibition provides opportunities for students to explore how the art of photography coincided with the settlement of the state, displaying a continuous record of its development through portraiture, scenic views, landmark buildings, and major events from the 1840s to 1940s. Major photographers of the period include Townsend, Duryea, Samuel Sweet, George Freeman, H. H. Tilbrook, Frederick Joyner and John Kauffman. In South Australia, the fi rst photographs were made in 1845, nine years after European settlement, and only six years after the fi rst daguerreotypes were produced in France. Early South Australian pioneer photographers used large cameras, tripods with blackout hoods and heavy, fragile glass plates to create negatives. They often used a tent as a darkroom and would process their fi lms on the spot, using poisonous and infl ammable chemicals such as bromicides and nitrates on fragile papers. Unlike contemporary photographers, they did not shoot multiple photographs to capture these historic works, but after painstaking preparation and careful composition took only one or two shots! In the early stages of the colony, every new camera was seen as a newsworthy event. Photography was praised for it’s truthfulness, accuracy and ability to record fi ne detail. During the mid-1850s there was a growing number of amateur photogrpahers in Adelaide. By 1865 complete ‘set(s) of apparatus suitable for Lady and Gentleman Amateurs, with a quantity of chemicals, all packed in a box, with instructions in the art for £10 could be bought’. By the 1880s and 1890s, amateur photographers grew rapidly in number due to the introduction of the dry-plate negative and the development of simpler hand-held cameras. By the late 1940s photography was a widely accessible and essential part of everyday life. It was used for the recording of family snapshots, capturing local and international news, as well as for scientifi c, medical and forensic purposes. The Art Gallery of South Australia’s precious ‘Noye Collection’, originally compiled by SA Photographer R.J. Noye, with its 5000 photographs and glass plate negatives from 19th and early 20th century South Australian photographers, forms the basis of this exhibition. http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~rjnoye/ A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 2 The daguerreotype was seen as an ‘important art’ in Adelaide in 1845. It showed how art and science could be brought together to create photographic portraits that were considered to be superior to painted or drawn portraits. Texts on the art of photography gave detailed ways of posing the sitter. Men for example, were typically posed sitting at a desk with one arm rested and with a slightly turned head. Figures were also posed in this manner in Adelaide from the early 1850s using the new ambrotype photography. During the early 1860s, technological advances in photography saw the change of the image on silvered copper (daguerrotype) or glass (ambrotype), to mass produced images printed on paper. From the early 1860s detailed studio settings were being used as part of the photographic event. Painted screen backdrops and studio furniture - curtains, columns, urns, posing chairs and papier-mâché doorways and balustrades were included. Throughout the mid-to-late 1870s Aboriginal people were often posed in a fake wilderness scene. The Adelaide Photographic Company and Duryea Studio were creating at this time, detailed hand-coloured photographs which were available as a ‘modern’ option to the traditional painted portrait The portrait photography business was completely changed in South Australia with the development of small-scale albumen paper prints mounted on cards approximately 6.2 x 10.5cm called cartes. They were so popular that special albums - the photography album - were developed to store them. The convenient size and weight of the cartes (calling cards) made them perfect for swapping with friends or sending to loved ones in England. Cartes were sold in sets of a dozen for approximately 15 shillings (approximately $1.50) in the mid-1860s, which was half the cost of one daguerreotype. Cartes were produced cheaply from a glass negative. The cheaper cost of the cartes made portrait photography popular to the middle class. Image: Samuel NIXON, Australia, 1847-1922, Portrait of Aboriginal man in European dress, early 1870s, South Australia, albumen silver photograph (carte de visite) South Australian Government Grant 1989, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 3 During the 1870s photographers became more relaxed with the composition of the sitter. Photographers tried to show greater individuality in the posing of their subjects, such as the examples of James Uren’s Member of the Kapunda Football Club (1879), and Edwin W Marchant’s Origen Hooper with his Penny Farthing (1880s). The introduction of ‘dry-plate’ negatives for paper-based photographs in 1880 brought more changes to the portrait business. The reduced exposure time from approximately fi ve seconds to one second, resulted in the growth of child portraiture ‘no matter how young or troublesome’. The poses and settings for young children became more varied, as they no longer needed to be ‘tied’ in place to stop them from moving. Dry-plate negatives also meant that sporting teams, social clubs and work mates could be posed in open air settings rather than in studios. The introduction of on-site locations such as construction sites, pub interiors and private gardens, made it possible for photographers to show the individual personality of their subjects more successfully. This portrait of Sir Henry Ayers is the earliest known daguerreotype created in South Australia. The date comes from a note signed by Ayres which states ‘this was taken by a travelling artist at the Burra sometime in 1847 or 1848 when I was 26 or 27 years old’. Ayers arrived in the Colony with his wife Elizabeth in 1840. He worked as a law clerk until 1845, when he was appointed Secretary of the South Australian Mining Association. The Burra Burra copper mines made Ayres a fortune within fi ve years. • Can you fi nd the small pile of copper ore placed on the table near Ayer’s right hand? In this portrait, the two year old William Mortlock wears a striped dress which was fashionable at the time. This portrait is unusual as William has been photographed with his Aboriginal nanny, Jemima, rather than his own mother. Jemima’s place in this double portrait shows us the existing attitudes towards Aborigines at that time. Her ‘tribal’ appearance and manner have been overcome by the respectability of ‘white’ dress and domestic duties. • What do you think caused the portrait of William to look slightly blurred? Images: Unknown photographer, 19th century, Sir Henry Ayers, 1847 or 1848, Burra, South Australia, daguerreotype, State Library of South Australia, PRG 67/48; Unknown photographer, 19th century, Jemima, wife of Jacky and William T. Mortlock, c.1860, Adelaide, daguerreotype, colour dyes, Ayers House Collection, National Trust of South Australia. A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 4 This well known identity of the 1860s, explorer, John McDoull Stuart was photographed by Robert Stacey. (Carefully lift the black cloth to view this portrait.) Stuart had just successfully crossed Australia from south to north in 1862. Other photographers captured the excitement of Stuart’s return through blurry images of the explorer among Adelaide crowds, however Stacey’s historic image was taken in the studio. The carte is a re-enactment of Stuart placing the Union Jack on the shore of the Indian Ocean on 25 July 1962. Stuart holds a compass in his left hand and is shown standing against a painted backdrop which was prepared from Stuart’s own sketches. • Make a list of the objects you can see in the painted backdrop. Post Visit activity • Research the history of the Union Jack. Penny Farthings were introduced into South Australia in the late 1870s. Origon, the young man with the penny farthing (bicycle) was born in Salisbury, north of Adelaide in 1863. • Make a list of all other types of transport that you can fi nd in this exhibition. In 1877 Kapunda was one of the twelve original teams of the South Australian Football League. At this time football was very competitive. Kapunda photographer James Uren created this portrait of James S Pearce and added colour dyes to the photograph. • James is wearing a very different type of football uniform. How is it different to today’s designs? • Explain why you think football fashion design has changed since 1879. Post Visit activity • Design a football uniform for your favourite team in the year 2020. Images: Robert S. STACY, Australia, 1834-1890, John McDouall Stuart, 1863, Adelaide, albumen silver photograph (carte de visite), State Library of South Australia, B500; Edwin W. MARCHANT, Australia, 1849 1932, Origen Hooper with his penny farthing, 1880s, Clare, South Australia, albumen silver photo- graph (carte de visite), R.J. Noye Collection, Gift of Douglas and Barbara Mullins 2004, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; James UREN, Australia, born active 1867 1910, Member of the Kapunda Football Club, 1879, Kapunda South Australia, albumen silver photograph (carte de visite), colour dyes, State Library of South Australia, B7437 A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 5 Photographer Samuel Sweet loved to take images of unusual subjects, and to create interesting compositions.
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