Title
Ferryboat, early morning
1908
Artist
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Details
- Date
- 1908
- Media category
- Photograph
- Materials used
- green carbon photograph
- Dimensions
- 7.3 x 8.9 cm image/sheet; 26.1 x 21.4 cm card
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r. card, ink "H.C 1908".
- Credit
- Gift of the Cazneaux family 1979
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 172.1979
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Harold Cazneaux
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
The moody quality of Ferryboat, early morning is derived from its resolution through the carbon printing. This process yielded a more permanent image, less susceptible to aging than many contemporaneous printing technologies. In the case of this picture, green toned carbon tissue was bathed in potassium dichromate and then held against the glass plate negative. The plate was exposed and the imprint resolved onto the carbon paper. The carbon paper was then placed on a more solid backing 1. The carbon process has accentuated the light seeping through the clouds, the wake of the ferry, the rippled surface of the water and the tin roof of the boatshed. The remainder of the photograph dissolves into dense dark areas typical carbon printing.
Harold Cazneaux was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1878. His parents, Pierce Mott Cazneau and Emma Florence (née Bentley) worked in commercial studios in New Zealand before returning to settle permanently in Adelaide during the early 1890s. At the age of 18 Cazneaux went to work alongside his father at Hammer & Co studio as a retoucher. He moved to Sydney in 1904 to join the larger portrait firm, Freeman’s quickly ascending to the position of ‘chief operator’ (as camera portraitists were known). Studio work was highly formulaic, with little scope for creativity. Cazneaux used his time walking to and from work to experiment with pictorialist aesthetics 2. The Photographic Society of New South Wales organised an exhibition of Cazneaux’s photographs in 1909, the first such solo exhibition of its kind in Australia. In 1916 he and fellow pictorialist photographer, Cecil Bostock founded the Sydney Camera Circle. The group was particularly interested in the how pictorialism could be adapted to and extended within an Australian context. The mechanised, standardised and frenetic pace of Freeman’s increasingly took its toll on Cazneaux’s creativity and health, and he resigned in 1917. He moved with his wife and daughters to the Sydney suburb of Roseville, and in 1920 he was employed as the official photographer for The Home magazine. This new position let him work in a varied indoor and outdoor environments. In 1938 Cazneaux was awarded an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of London. He continued to work until his death in 1953.
1. Peres M R 2007, ‘The Focal Encyclopaedia of Photography’, Focal Press, Amsterdam p 59
2. Newton G 1988, ‘Shades of Light: Photography and Australia 1839-1988’, Australian National Gallery, Canberra p 85 -
Exhibition history
Shown in 3 exhibitions
Australian Pictorial Photography, S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, 12 Jun 1979–08 Jul 1979
Australian Pictorial Photography, The Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, South Bank, 08 Aug 1979–31 Aug 1979
Australian Pictorial Photography, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 01 Dec 1979–30 Jan 1980
My city of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 02 Sep 2000–22 Oct 2000
Harold Cazneaux: artist in photography, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 05 Jun 2008–10 Aug 2008
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Bibliography
Referenced in 3 publications
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Natasha Bullock, Harold Cazneaux: artist in photography, Sydney, 2008.
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Gael Newton, Australian Pictorial Photography, Melbourne, 1979, 16. cat.no. 17a
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Michael Wardell, My city of Sydney, Sydney, 2000. no pagination or catalogue numbers
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