NTURY IN FO A CE CUS Education Resource 1840s–1940s

So hy uth grap Australian Photo Art Gallery of North Terrace, , 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 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. This photograph is an unusual portrait of a woman, seated side-saddle and perfectly at ease upon the large camel. This was the preferred position for riding camels in Australia as it allowed any luggage to be conveniently tied to the camel, in front of the rider.

The fl at barren landscape shows the harsh conditions of the Beltana region. At that time Beltana Station, owned by Thomas Elder, was the centre of cattle breeding and supply for outback transport in South Australia. His camels which came from Karachi, Pakistan, were the fi rst, in 1866, to be imported into the state.

Post Visit activity • Research why camels were introduced into South Australia as an early mode of transport. McGann’s photograph of the English team would have been taken in November 1891, when the team began their Australian tour with a match in Adelaide against the South Australian side.

The photograph was taken outdoors, in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens, using a backdrop of spiky exotic vegetation to add visual interest.

The players are wearing formal clothing rather than cricket uniforms. The English team manager, Alfred Shaw, commented on the photograph:

“Dear Sir - The Earl of Sheffi eld’s English cricketers are very pleased with the photo you have taken for them and consider it the best taken in Australia, and have much pleasure in ordering three dozen copies - I remain yours, Alfred Shaw”

• Describe the various positions that McGann has posed the cricketers for this group portrait.

• How has McGann tried to make the photograph look casual? Do you think the photographer succeeds?

Post Visit activity • Research who won the 1891-92 Third Test between England and Australia in Adelaide.

Image: Samuel SWEET, 1825-1886, Lady and camel, 1882, albumen-silver photograph, R.J. Noye Collection, Gift of Douglas and Barbara Mullins 2004, Art Gallery of South Australia; Terrence MCGANN, 1847/48-1913, Lord Sheffi eld’s team of English Cricketers, 1891, albumen-silver photograph, State Library of South Australia, B 10209

A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 6 This group is posed in 1898 while holidaying at Cape Banks along the length of their fi shing boat, surrounded by crayfi sh caught with cane pots.

The stingray in the foreground is probably the creature that had earlier stung the boy on the horse.

In 1859 the steamship Admella was wrecked near Cape Banks while sailing from Adelaide to . Eighty-nine people were killed, making it one of the worst maritime disasters in Australian history. Two life rafts were set afl oat from the Admella. While one boat got to shore, the other was carried out to sea and its occupants were drowned.

• Locate the photographer H.H. Tilbrook who is the fi rst fi gure in this group.

• What might the cable in his right hand be used for?

Post Visit activity • Research the disaster of the Admella shipwreck in 1859. This painting can be found in Gallery 3(a).

• Imagine that this photograph shows the boat that managed to get ashore during the wreck of the Admella.

• Write a short story about their experience and survival.

Images: H.H. TILBROOK, 1848-1937, Spoils of the ocean, 1898, in Album of photographs by H.H. Tilbrook (2), gelatin-silver photograph, R.J. Noye Collection, Gift of Douglas and Barbara Mullins 2004, Art Gallery of South Australia; James SHAW, 1815-1881, The Admella wrecked, Cape Banks, 6th August, 1859, Gift of Poppy Burgess and Gwen Holland in memory of their grandfather Mortimer Burman 1967, Art Gallery of South Australia.

A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 7 Photography was introduced to South Australia in 1845 and in a short space of time was used to visually record places in which colonial Sout Australians lived and worked.

Landscape and portraiture photographs of this period were exhibited alongside traditional media such as painting, drawing and sculpture in Adelaide.

Bernard Goode’s Rundle Street image, shows several drapers, a clothier, bootmaker, horse decorator, jeweller adn a chemist, portraying a thriving and stylish business district in Adelaide during the 1860s.

Samuel Sweet’s views of South Australia were exhibited overseas at various International Exhibitions which were seen as ways to promote innovations in art, architecure and industry. By the 1870s, when Sweet made this photograph Colonel Light’s plan for the city of Adelaide had been largely implemented.

This image of Sweet’s is typical of his streetscape compositions with its strong, uncluttered ar- rangement of forms, and balanced symmetry.

The wide, sealed streets and spacious design of the central buisiness district (CBD) are visible from the northern end of Square.

• Locate the two municipal buildings in these photographs, the (on the right) and General Post Offi ce (on the left).

• Can you list any changes that have occured to these streetscapes over the last 130 years?

Image: Bernard GOODE, c1834-1897, Adelaide, 1868-74, albumen-silver photograph; Gift of Douglas and Barbara Mullins 2001, Art Gallery of South Australia; Samuel SWEET, 1825-1886, King William Street Adelaide, looking north from Victoria Square, 1872-77, albumen-silver photograph, South Australian Government Grant 1980, Art Gallery of South Australia.

A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 8 Stereography became very popular with photographers and their viewing public from the mid-nineteenth cenntury. Stereography was the process where photographers mounted two near-identical images side by side on a cardboard mount, which , when viewed through a hand-held stereoscope, created a three-dimensional effect.

These were ideal for capturing images of strange lands and the viewing of natural and technological wonders of the times.

• View several of the images from the series Stereoscopic views of the River Murray, 1862. • Describe how the people and landscapes in these stereographs look different to other photographs (cartes) in this exhibition. • Have you seen this type of three-dimensional effect elsewhere? If so, describe the device or the technology you used. How has the technology changed over time?

Image: George BURNELL, 1830-1894; Aborogines in their canoes, Overland Corner, no.55 in the series Stereoscopic views of the RIver Murray, 1862, albumen-silver photograph, South Australian Government Grant 1980, Art Gallery of South Australia; George BURNELL, 1830-1894; Three Mile Reach, Moorundee, , , no.33 in the series Stereoscopic views of the RIver Murray, 1862, albumen-silver photograph, South Australian Government Grant 1980, Art Gallery of South Australia;

A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 9 The genre of the painted panorama has a long history in art which dates back to the late eighteenth century. From the 1850s, the new medium of photography was adapted to meet demand for expansive views.

The late 1870s were boom years for the South Australian economy. This panorama taken of Port Adelaide documents the amazing quantity of martitime activity during that period.

Captain Samuel Sweet created this panoramic photograph of Port River Shipping by joining fi ve sequential photographs.

• Look carefully at these two images. Can you locate the four joins in the panoramas? • During this period, technological advances were taking place in martime activity. Look for examples of the old clipper ships and the new steam-driven vessels. Describe the differences you see.

Post Visit activity • Using a digital camera, create your own panorama of your favourite local scene. • Scan your image and email us at [email protected]

During the 1860s carte de visite photographs of Aboriginal people were produced as souvenirs. These were sold locally and often send ‘home’, as a memento “...of a race which seems to be fast disappearing from this land” ¹. Aboriginal subjects were photographed in the studio or at their campsites.

Locate the photograph titled Studio portrait of Aboriginal woman and child by Saul Solomon. It depicts the woman and child dressed in an animal-skin cloak and artefacts foreign to them: the sword club is from the Pacifi c region and spears were not used by women in Aboriginal culture. Soloman’s image uses artistic fantasy to create visual appeal for the viewer. Many other photographers of the day created elaborate studio settings for non-Indigenous South Australians.

• Find examples of studio settings that show European architecture and gardens. • Create a sketch of the sword club from this photograph. Write down an estimate of its height and width. • Later, visit the Pacifi c Cultures gallery at the South Australian Museum. See if you can fi nd a similar sword club on display. Research how they were used and by whom. ¹ South Australian register, 3 May 1864

Image: Samuel SWEET, 1825-1886, Panorama of shipping Port Adelaide 21st April 1879, 1879, fi ve albumen-silver photographs, South Australian Martime Museum

A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 10 Amateur photographer Hammond Tilbrook was an expert in creating unusual compositions in his photographic images. He loved to show the grandeur of the South Australian landscape.

Tilbrook loved to place human subjects in the landscape to emphasise the contrast of scale between man and nature.

Tilbrook loved the patterns that appeared on limestone on the south- eastern coast of South Australia. These patterns are created by the chemical reactions that occur between sea water and limestone rock.

Tilbrook went to great lengths to create an example of early art photography. He visited the location four times before foul weather stopped. He set his camera on a tripod in two feet of sea water. He made a clever remote control device made of thread and an empty bullet cartridge to release the shutter on his camera. Tilbrook then photographed himself on top of the spiky rock!

• Is the remote control thread visible? How do you think Tilbrook hid it from view?

The South Australian Railway Department used Corset Rock to decorate its carriages between 1920 and 1940.

• Describe the elements which make this dramatic photograph so successful.

A popular amateur photographer F.A. Joyner worked in a pictorial style, using contemporary photographic ideas. He was infl uenced by European art styles to create his images.

French and British painters of the nineteenth- century frequently used rural labour as a theme. Joyner’s friend, Hans Heysen also painted using this theme around the Adelaide Hills area.

• Visit Gallery 3 to view Heysen’s rural labour themed painting, titled ‘Red Gold’.

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

A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 11 Girl with apples is a beautiful study of a young girl holding a basket of apples. Joyner often photographed several shots of the same subject in different poses, using different lighting effects to create a well-balanced composition.

• Explain why you think that Joyner has blurred the focus of the landscape in the background of this image? • What feeling or emotion does the artist capture by posing the model in this way?

Photographers in the early twentieth century were inspired by the theme of urban or industrial labour. They were wanting to capture atmospheric effects of dust, smoke or steam.

The steam winch, c1909 by Tom H. Stoward is a good example of the use of these effects to create a particular mood. Stoward captures a lone industry worker surrounded by a steamy haze and dwarfed by the machinery he is operating.

Stoward exhibited his photographs overseas, and in 1909 an article from the South Australian Photographic Society noted he was “...a prize-taker, not only locally but in the European competitions”.

Look carefully at this image. • What is the mood created in this photograph? • Describe how the photographer captured this. • Look in this area of the exhibition for other examples of atmospheric effects.

Post Visit activity • Create a short poem that captures the mood of this man working the machinery.

Image: F.A. JOYNER, 1863-1945, Girl with apples, c1909-08, bromide photograph on linen-textured paper, Gift of Mrs Max Joyner 1981, Art Gallery of South Australia; Tom A. STOWARD, 1874-1941, The steam winch, c1909, carbon photograph, South Australian Government Grant 1991, Art Gallery of South Australia. A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 12 Photographer John Kauffman created a number of water studies, including harbour scenes in Adelaide in the 1890s.

This 1930s work titled Jazz, after a popular music style of this time, shows his interest in abstract design through its use of sharp angles, repetition of shape and strong diagonal composition.

We can see zig-zag forms and stripes of varying thicknesses, which suggest the rising the falling of musical notes in jazz music.

• Create a sketch of Jazz below using line only.

Post Visit activity • Listen to some Jazz music. • Colour or paint your image using a colour scheme which you feel suits this style of music.

The Australian Government after fi ve years at war needed to attract skilled migrants to the country. A marketing campaign was required to do this, and in 1945, photographer Max Dupain was commissioned to capture Australia’s way of life.

Using a Rolleifl ex camera he took hundreds of images from all over Australia capturing clean city streets, well maintained parks, historic town centres and modern architecture.

These photographs were used in government sponsored publications.

In Adelaide, 1946 (printed 2007), we can see Dupain’s ability to capture the energy of a modern city. In this close-up view from a balcony, he has used strong shadows cast on the footpath and silhouettes to create and eye-catching composition.

• What time of the year and day do you think this image has been taken? Explain the reasons for your answer.

Image: John KAUFFMAN, 1864-1942, Jazz, c1930, gelatin-silver photograph, South Australian Government Grant 1988, Art Gallery of South Australia; Max DUPAIN, 1911-1992, Adelaide, 1946 (printed 2007), gelatin-silver photograph, J.C. Earl Bequest Fund 2007, Art Gallery of South Australia.

A Century in Focus: South Australian Photography 1840s-1940s - Education Resource Page 13