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Thomas Flintoff was a professional painter and photographer. Born in England, he travelled in North America, Mexico and the Society Islands before arriving in Melbourne in 1853. He established himself in the gold mining town of Ballarat from 1860 until 1872 when he returned to Melbourne to practice photography until his unexpected death from ammonia poisoning (Flintoff mistook it for cough mixture) in 1891.

A carte de visite is a stiff card of about 10 x 6.4 cm, with an attached paper photograph, invented in 1854 by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disderi. They were introduced into Australia in 1859 by William Blackwood with albums arriving in 1860, aiding the collection and distribution of multiple cartes. Cartes were usually portraits and were made by the millions worldwide. Multi-lens, or ‘multiplying’ cameras were introduced in the 1860s, which were capable of producing from 2 to 32 images in quick succession, dramatically increasing the number of cartes de visite that could be made from a single photographic plate. They were easily reproduced by making paper contact prints from the glass plates, which were then cut and pasted to card.