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I
grew up in Surfers Paradise, Queensland on Australia’s Gold Coast and developed an early
interest in photography through using my mother’s Kodak Box Brownie, then a
cheap plastic viewfinder camera before moving up to my mother's Minolta SR2, then a Minolta SRT101B
and finally a switch to the Canon SLR system when I was offered a complete outfit
and I have continued to use Canon cameras ever since. At 15 my interest in early
photography was
stimulated by a gift of early family pictures and two old folding cameras from a relative, but it was a
Scottish cabinet photo that most drew my attention. A year later I acquired some
old photos from an antique shop and I have collected them along with old cameras
ever since. In parallel
to these interests I have avidly researched my Scottish, English, Welsh, Irish and Polish
ancestry (see link below).
In 1984 I graduated in Medicine
from the University of Queensland and later started working as a General
Practitioner on Brisbane’s south side. In 1992 I purchased a Brisbane family
photograph album and I became more curious about local photographers. It turned
out the grand children of two of the photographers whose work was in the album
were patients of mine. Since then I have keenly researched the lives of Brisbane
photographers. This research was eventually extended to photographers from other
parts of Queensland, then Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Ireland,
France, South Africa, South America and the Pacific and contact with hundreds of
descendants and relations of photographers as well as many other photographic
historians and curators around the world.
Friendships with fellow collectors and researchers Sandy Barrie in Queensland,
Warwick Reeder in Melbourne, Robert (Bob) Noye of South Australia (now deceased),
Ron Cosens (Britain’s major carte de visite collector - his collection contains
over 200 000 images!) and Francois Boisjoly in
Lyon (who has the largest collection of French cartes de visite) has greatly increased my
enthusiasm and knowledge. My collection has grown to over 30,000 photographs and
5000 postcards and is particularly strong in Australian carte de visite images, my first passion
amongst my extensive collection that also includes many British glass plate
cameras.
I
collaborate and provide research support for Ron Cosens' massive and comprehensive
database of photographers of Great Britain and Ireland 1840-1940 website http://www.cartedevisite.co.uk
and Sandy Barrie's ongoing research for an updated edition of his directory
"Australians Behind the Camera 1842-1945".
I have spoken to historical societies, collector’s groups and photographic
conventions on aspects of photographic history and collecting, created
photographic history websites, authored monographs on photographers, contributed
to the Routledge “Encyclopedia of 19th Century Photography” and provided info to
authors for books on photographic history in Australia, New Zealand, Great
Britain, France, India, China and the USA. I have attended an array of
photographic trade fairs, symposiums and conventions in Australia, New Zealand,
the UK and the USA and look forward to attending many more.
Currently
researching:
- all 19th century Australian photographers
- history of the carte de visite in Australia
- history of the cabinet photograph in Australia
- definitive biographical database of Australia's daguerreotype
photographers.
-
early Jewish photographers of Australia (with Mike Butcher)
- Henry Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss (there will be an
exhibition of the
Holtermann collection of negatives
"The Greatest Wonder of the World"
23 February 2013 – 12 May 2013 at the State Library of New
South Wales)
- postcards of Southport, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach, Miami, Palm Beach,
Currumbin, Coolangatta, Tweed Heads (the Gold Coast), Queensland, Australia
Memberships:
Daguerreian
Society
Photographic Historical Society of Canada
Magic Lantern
Society (UK)
Cameraholics (Photographic Collectors Club of Queensland)
- President and webmaster
Australian Photographic Collector’s
Society
Photographic
Collectors Club of Great Britain
Photographic Collectors Association of New Zealand
Queensland Card Collector’s Society Inc
- webmaster
Internet memberships:
Photohistory online
forum
British Photohistory online
forum
Wood and Brass camera
collectors group - moderator - online Yahoo group
Carte de visite
- online Yahoo group
Canon G15 and Canon 7D - my current favourite shooting cameras
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