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Details
- Date
- 1866
- Media category
- Photograph
- Materials used
- carte de visite
- Dimensions
- 8.8 x 5.6 cm image; 10.2 x 6.3 cm mount card
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 2014
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 599.2014
- Copyright
- Artist information
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William Parker
Works in the collection
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About
William Parker was a professional photographer based in Dunolly, Victoria. The subject of this carte de visite is Susan Augusta Chauncy née Mitchell (1828–1867). Born in Bombay and raised in Perth, Western Australia, Susan married the English surveyor Philip Lamothe Snell Chauncy and moved with him and their children to Dunolly where Chauncy was chief surveyor. Following Susan’s death, Chauncy published an intimate biography of her life for the ‘instruction and comfort’ of the couple’s eight children.
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.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 1 exhibition
The photograph and Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 Mar 2015–08 Jun 2015
The photograph and Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 04 Jul 2015–11 Oct 2015