Photographers/index.html
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Freotopia > photographers. See also: panoramas.
Photographers
This page started as a list derived from John Dowson's 2003/4 book (qv infra, see esp. 12-15), which is as much about photographers as it is about Old Fremantle. Also, as are we all, I am greatly indebted to Shelley Tonkin for her invaluable online History of WA Photography.
I've added some of the photographers of the present day. [1]
Adelphi Studio (Bayley, Craig & Cambie). (This brief summary is abstracted from Shelley Tonkin's article in her invaluable online History of WA Photography.) Bayley and Craig took over Webb & Webb's studio at 101 High Street, Fremantle, in March 1901, renaming it the Adelphi Studio. By April 1902, Edward John Cambie had become the owner and manager of the studio. He later had a studio at 68 Ellen Street (1906) and 38 Adelaide Street (1910) in Fremantle. Cambie died in December 1947, in Nedlands.
Nathaniel Mews Armstrong was the youngest son of 14 children, born in 1855 to Francis Fraser Armstrong and Mary Ann Mews (from the well-known boat building family in Fremantle.) His father Francis, arrived in the Swan River colony, from Edinburgh, aboard the Gilmore in 1829. He was a collector for the Perth city council and local interpreter for the indigenous population. The son was named after one of his Scottish ancestors, Nathaniel Gow, who was a prominent composer back in their homeland. He opened a studio, which he took over from Greenfield, in High Street opposite Albert's hotel in December 1882. (This brief summary is abstracted from Shelley Tonkin's article in her invaluable online History of WA Photography.)
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Arnold T. Beste was an immigrant from Germany who arrived c. 1905. He is the subject of John Dowson's book Old Fremantle Childhood, 2006.
Alfred Osborne Charlton was a prominent portrait photographer before dying of influenza in 1919 aged 37.
Alfred Chopin. Go the historyofwaphotography website for his story.
Denis Dease (1869-1959) was a significant Perth photographer. [2]
Glen Cowans, specialist in underwater photography, has a gallery in the pilot cottage on Arthur Head next to the Round House.
'… here nature itself has been the artist and I have simply attempted to capture and reproduce as accurately as possible, nature’s masterpieces in a form that can be accepted and admired above water. ... These images intend to show ... the minute detail of coral, fragile tube worms and anemones or the patterns of fish scales and fins ...'.
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George Davidson worked 1910-60 for shipping company McIlwraith McEacharn in the building known as Scottish House in Phillimore Street.
He took photos of and from the building which are important social documents.
A member of a famous Fremantle football family, Steve is a professional photographer and freelance web designer.
Matthew Dwyer was well known for his wonderful wildlife photography, of birds especially, and for his journalistic work in the Fremantle Herald, but he was able to take on any kind of photographic and, latterly, video work.
He died as the result of a fall from Bluff Knoll 1/2 October 2019, aged 51. It was a place with which he was familiar, and where he loved to be.
Samuel Scriven Evans, American dageuerrotypist, arrived 1853, first studio at Castle Hotel; nothing has survived
Frederick Flood moved to Western Australia from England in 1912. In 1919 he was employed by West Australian Newspapers mainly preparing artwork for advertisements but his talent was recognised and he became a full-time photographer for the newspaper. For the next forty years he painted, drew and photographed people, buildings and rural scenes in Western Australia and recorded a unique insight into the lives of West Australians.
Saxon Fogarty. Born in Perth in 1908, he joined the RAN at the age of 18, and served on HMAS Australia [II], the destroyer Voyager [I], and cruiser HMAS Canberra [I]: but along with his interest in photography, he also had another life: aviation. A licensed pilot, he was eventually sent to the RAF during the war, and ended up flying reconnaissance aircraft off the King George V battleships. After the war he returned to Australia and for a time has established a photographic studio in Fremantle in the late 1940s. But the pull of the sea must have been strong. In his 40s he joined the Merchant Marine and served on a large number of merchant vessels. And from there, he disappears from our view. source
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Roger Garwood is Fremantle's senior photographer. He was born on a Thames barge, and studied engineering, but turned to photography, working in John Searle Austin's studio in London. His interest in photo-reportage led to him becoming a freelance photographer, working for Stern, Bunte, Jasmin, and the Saturday Evening Post, before joining the staff of Paris Match. He came to Fremantle on holiday in 1974 and stayed, becoming an Australian citizen in 1978. He has since been involved in the production of a dozen books.
George & Walton. (This brief summary is abstracted from Shelley Tonkin's article in her invaluable online History of WA Photography.) Ernest Eden George (left) and Henry John Walton were in partnership in Christchurch before opening an Auckland branch of the American photographic franchise, Tuttle & Co., before moving back to Christchurch and opening a studio, as Eden George & Co. They moved to Sydney and then Adelaide before opening a studio on the corner of High and William Streets on 7 August 1886. They also sold photos taken by other local photographers like Alfred Chopin and James Manning. The business closed in February 1887, and George returned to Christchurch and Walton went to Melbourne.
Stuart Gore (1905-1984) was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1905 and came to Australia with his parents at the age of three. An inquisitive boy in short pants with a 00 Primo, he began hanging around the photographic studios of the likes of Nixon, Orloff and Lang in Fremantle. Eventually he was invited inside to learn more. In 1923, after a short time in England, Stuart opened his own little photography establishment in Market Street Fremantle. (Text from SLWA)
Lewis Gray-Williams. (This brief summary is abstracted from Shelley Tonkin's article in her invaluable online History of WA Photography.) Gray-Williams came from Liverpool and was operating in early 1897 Henry Street as the Royal Portrait Studio. He moved to High Street on 25 October 1897, trading as L. Gray-Williams & Co. He had previously worked in northwest WA. He left the High Street studio before September 1899, when it was taken over by Millington Studio. In 1901, he was in Tasmania, but left for Canada in 1904, then the USA, where G-W died of typhoid fever in Roswell, NM.
Harrison Studios. See John Dowson's note in Old Fremantle: 13.
Frank Hurley (1885-1962) was an Australian photographer and adventurer. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica and served as an official photographer with Australian forces during both world wars.
George Keane
Michal Levi
Roel Loopers, noted blogger, former Round House guide, and former president of the Fremantle Society, records changing Fremantle.
James Manning was the son of another James Manning, the Clerk of Works who arrived on the Scindian 1 June 1850 with Edmund Henderson, Comptroller-General of Convicts, and Thomas Dixon, Superintendant of Convicts, and the first group of convicts.
Jane Manning, sister of the above James, had her own studio which she named after the family home in Cantonment Street, as the Yeldham Photographic Gallery.
Alfred Thomas Maywood (1867-1919)
Maywood was a keen amateur photographer and left a carefully curated photograph album featuring Fremantle in the 1890-1900s – landscapes and streetscapes, residents, commercial and cultural activities and sports. This is a photographer's album, not an album of snapshots; it is an artistic creation intended for display and browsing by visitors. Maywood was both documenting local life and creating artistic forms.
Henry Merrilees. (This brief summary is abstracted from Shelley Tonkin's article in her invaluable online History of WA Photography.) Merilees was born in Victoria, moving to WA in July 1892 where he went into partnership with Charles Nixon. They had taken over the Tuttle & Co. studio at 7 William Street by August 1892.
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Charles Millington Nixon provided the photographs for Hitchcock's History. He was in partnership with Henry Merilees. David Hutchison writes that 'the photographer Charles Nixon had his studios [at 97-99 High St, the Bousfield building] from 1901'. Melba Studios were advertised as being in High Street.
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Izzy Orloff, 1891-1983, Jewish Ukrainian immigrant
A Walkley Award winning photojournalist, David Dare Parker has photographed for many national and international magazines. Publications include Le Monde, Stern, Australian Geographic, The Bulletin, The New York Times, Fortune, The Guardian, Bloomberg and TIME Magazine. ... Read more about him on his website.
He took the photographs for The Clubs with text by Ron Davidson, FotoFreo, 2010. He was one of the founders of FotoFreo.
Frank Peterson. See the page for Frank R. Peterson on streetsoffreo.com.au. See also John Dowson's note in Old Fremantle: 13.
Alfred Pickering was active in at least the last decade of the 19th century in Fremantle and Perth. SLWA has at least thirty of his photos in excellent condition.
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Bob Sommerville, also a graphic designer, travels a lot, and does some work for Fremantle Ports.
Brad Rimmer
photographs wheatbelt town halls.
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Alfred Hawes Stone was Chief of Police among other things, and also a keen photographer. His house, Alpha Cottage, was on the other side of St George's Terrace from the second and third Government Houses, which he photographed, as well as significant Perth sights. In Fremantle, he took valuable photographs of Manning's Folly, and of Cliff Street across the Fremantle Green, which are reproduced in Dowson 2003: 83, 95.
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Stephen Montague Stout (1831-1886). An ex-convict who operated a boarding school for boys before taking up photography, his first studio was in Henry St. The Fremantle City Library mounted a exhibition of his work for the Heritage Festival 2016 in the former Fremantle History Centre. See also Shelley Tonkin's article on Stout. [4]
Skip Watkins lived in Fremantle in the 1970s-1980s. He left an archive of 1985 Fremantle images which the Fremantle City Library makes available online. He shoots with Leica.
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Peter Zuvela, born in East Fremantle, graduated with an Advanced Dip Photography from Perth TAFE in 1998. He has had two solo shows, exhibited in a large number of group shows, and worked as a freelance photographer/artist and teacher from the J Shed Art Studio on Bathers Beach in Fremantle WA.
Peter is combining his freelance photographic work with teaching photography part time at his studio at the J Shed Art Studio.
References and Links
Ainslie, Trish & Roger Garwood 1994, Fremantle: Life in the Port City, Plantagenet, Fremantle, introduction Ken Kelso.
Dowson, John 2003, Old Fremantle: Photographs 1850-1950, UWAP, 2nd ed. 2004: esp. 12-15.
Dowson, John 2006, Old Fremantle Childhood, UWAP.
Dowson, John 2017, 'Rare and important: early photography in Fremantle', Fremantle Studies, 9: 1-14.
Hoffman, Louise & Chris Jeffery 1989, Izzy Orloff, Photographer: Images 1917-1935, FACP.
O'Brien, Jacqueline & Pamela Statham-Drew 2013, Court and Camera: The Life and Times of A.H. Stone, Fremantle Press.
Parker, David Dare & Ron Davidson 2010, The Clubs, FotoFreo, Fremantle.
Thomas, Peter 1988, 'Brief history and functions of the WA Police Photographic Section', policewahistory.org,au,
Tonkin, Shelley nd, History of WA Photography.
Walter, Irma 2014, Stout-Hearted: The Story of Stephen Montague Stout, Hesperian Press.
Winton, Tim 1993, Land's Edge, with Trish Ainslie & Roger Garwood, Penguin.
'Photo snobs fail history: Dowson', Fremantle Herald, 18 October 2013
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 3 June, 2016 and hosted at freotopia.org/photographers/index.html (it was last updated on 25 April, 2024). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.