Wednesday, August 30, 2017

AUSTRALASIAN WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS BROUGHT INTO SHARP FOCUS

 
Packed with  great  biographical details  and photographs  of  the  women whose  work was  exhibited  in  the national tour of  1981-1982 , the above  accompanying publication  brought  to light the  little known  extensive  involvement  by  women  in  this  field .  

 It states that  a Mrs Oswald Allen ran a photographic studio in Sydney  with her husband in 1871 ; nine other women had their own studios in Sydney between 1860 and 1900.  The first Australian Exhibition of Women's Work , held in the  Melbourne Exhibition Buildings , October  1907, displayed  16,000 entries , 98 photographers  from   all  states  entering  298  shots .

In  books  about the  history of  the  camera in Australia, the work of women  received  little   coverage .
 
 Adelie Hurley , born  1910 ,  daughter of  Captain Frank Hurley  the  famous  Australian  still and newsreel photographer, won  a  prize when she was 11  with  a Box Brownie . Self taught , she became a freelance  photographer  for  Pix magazine in 1938,possibly one of the  first three  women  press  photographers  in  Australia .
 
She stowed away  on an overland  troop convoy and   got  photographs of Darwin  before the civil  evacuation of  the city and  the Japanese bombing . Off  to America she went in 1947, came back and worked on The Sun, Sydney , also  the Daily Telegraph and  the Australian Women's Weekly . Her assignments included overseas  trips , outback stations and  Aboriginal sacred  sites in Arnhem Land . One husband  managed  a resort north of   Bowen, North  Queensland .    
 
 Sarah Chinnery (1887-1970), born Sarah Johnston Neill in Belfast , Northern Island , she  was  sent to England to  housekeep for  three of  her  brothers, all dentists , when her father remarried. Given a  Little Nipper camera , she became a member of three postal camera  clubs  and  won several prizes. 
 
In search of  subjects, she rode a motorbike , said to be  the second woman in England to have  a  licence. Like her brothers, she studied  dentistry and  did  work on Australian troops . In  1919 she married Australian anthropology student  E.W.Pearson Chinnery , studied town planning at Cambridge and attended anthropology lectures in preparation   for  moving to   New Guinea with her husband  when he became  Government Anthropologist there .
 
 She spent  16 years in New Guinea  from 1921 , travelled far and wide with her  camera  , her  photographs  published in Australian  newspapers  , three pages  in  the New York Times  in 1935. 
 
 Present  at  the 1933  first session of the  New Guinea Legislative  Council , she also captured the  1937 volcanic eruption at  Rabaul. On trips to Australia to have her  children , before settling in Melbourne ,  she met several arts and crafts people. She knew  Ellis Rowan , the intrepid   painter of wildflowers and birds   who travelled  through New  Guinea and  North Queensland.
 
Bernice Agar 1885-1976, born in Bowen , North Queensland,  after  training  in the Bain Photographic  Studios, Toowoomba , went to Sydney  and became renowned for  her  shots of  socialite   women  and  leading artists, including Thea Proctor . 
 
The Moore Sisters . Born  on  a small farm north of Auckland , New Zealand , in the l880s ,  their father a  timber cutter , May and  Mina  , became  prominent  in photography  in Melbourne and  Sydney . May ,  a striking woman , six  feet tall , wore Bohemian dresses; her  photographs were  run  in The Home, Triad  and The Lone Hand . Her husband , Harry Wilkes,  a dentist , gave up his practice to fully support  May in her  studio . They shared  an interest in Australian art and books and  had  a substantial library .
 
At one stage May   had a  studio in the Bulletin building in Sydney where she photographed  cartoonists  such as  "Hop " ( L. Hopkins )   , other  well known identities, the  Melba Opera Company  .
 
Both sisters  photographed   many young men going  off  to fight in WWl. The highly detailed commentary  in this  most interesting  catalogue  said a number of  women photographers   had   never married after young men they knew had been  killed  in  the  war . 
     
The  three enthusiasts  responsible for  pulling  the exhibition together and compiling  all the biographical information  were  Barbara Hall , born 1946, Victoria ,  television ,  radio and  print journalist, researcher . Founding member Women's Art Movement , Sydney . Organised  two  exhibitions  as  part of feminist  collectives:  Self  Image and Women's Images of Women , 1977. Contributed  to Lip  magazine  1976-1980. 
 
 Jenni Mather , born  1946, Victoria ,  a former  librarian , working  photographer. Christine Gillespie , born 1944, Victoria , gave her  nine year old daughter  Emily a  Box Brownie  camera   in 1980 , which she used to take the following  shot of  the  three , from the left , Gillespie, Mather and  Hall .