Harold Cazneaux Photographs - The Catalogue
Foreword
I first came
across Harold Cazneaux about 20 years ago when I discovered The Home,
that extraordinary magazine which survived from 1919 to 1942. Under the
patronage of Sydney Ure Smith for most of its life its pages reverberate with
an alluring mix of architecture, domestic interiors, decorative arts, gardens
and society dames many illustrated with Cazneauxs exquisite photographs.
I expect The Home was many peoples introduction to his
work.
With its interest
in all things domestic it is little wonder that the Historic Houses Trust has
not only acquired a full set of The Home but also taken an interest in
Harold Cazneaux, including acquiring some of his photographs of Sydney
houses.
In recent years
the Trust has forged a very productive relationship with the National Library
of Australia, exchanging exhibitions and working on several more
together.
This is the first
truly collaborative exhibition we have undertaken together. It draws on the
knowledge and skills of both the Trust and the Library and on the significant
collection of Cazneaux photographs held by the National Library. It has been a
pleasure and privilege to work with Warren Horton, Director-General of the
National Library of Australia and his staff on this important exhibition. We
are both pleased it will travel to regional galleries in Waverley, Victoria and
Newcastle, Dubbo and Orange in NSW.
Isnt it
ironic, in an age of multimedia extravaganzas, that Cazneauxs uncoloured
photographs, with their sheer beauty and ability to evoke a strong sense of
place and to capture, not just a fleeting moment, but a whole atmosphere, have
become more relevant than ever?
Peter Watts
Director, Historic Houses Trust of NSW
-
"You may agree with me in saying that we have lived in perhaps
the most remarkable and inspiring period of the history of
photography
-
That's worthwhile."
Harold Cazneaux, letter to Jack Cato, May
1952 NLA MS 5416 All letters from Cazneaux to Cato are from this
collection
When Harold
Cazneaux (1878-1953) died, photographic circles worldwide mourned his loss.
Cazneaux was more than a photographer; he was a writer, critic and teacher of
photographic theory and technique. He has left a legacy of photographic work
that has proved timeless in its creative beauty and extraordinary tonal
qualities.
Photography was
part of Cazneauxs world from childhood. Both his parents Pierce Mott (d.
1928) and Emma Florence Cazneau (d. 1892) worked in photographic studios in
Wellington, New Zealand where Harold was born. The x was added by
Harold in 1904 to emphasize his French ancestry. When the family moved to
Adelaide in 1889, Pierce Mott was employed at Hammer & Co.s
photography studio. It was at Hammers that Cazneaux entered the world of
studio photography. Initially, he was not employed as a photographer, but as a
colourist and retoucher. He showed no real enthusiasm for photography as it was
practiced within the traditional studio system and spent his evenings attending
classes at the Adelaide School of Design. He felt his real talent lay in
sketching and drawing.
Then in 1898, the
Australian photographer John Kauffmann (1864-1942) exhibited in an
international photographic exhibition held in Adelaide. Kauffmann had spent the
previous decade studying in Europe where he was swept up by a group of
photographers calling themselves "pictorialists". He returned to Australia
espousing their beliefs. The camera was an aesthetic instrument, they
proclaimed, rather than a purely functional tool for recording
images.
Every photograph
was a work of art. The sharp focus so favoured by contemporary commercial
studios was passed over for a softly focused "impressionistic" style. The
resemblance to a painting or etching reflected a growing trend away from the
realism of the nineteenth century.
The rapid advance
in technologies associated with photographic processes was also linked to the
pictorial movement that Kauffmann represented. Atmospheric carbon prints and
particularly bromoil prints, where the final image is produced by an oil
pigment brushed on to the surface, allowed a far greater degree of personal
control. Bromoils were to become a Cazneaux trademark.
Kauffmanns
photographs were a revelation and proved to be an inspiration for
Cazneaux:
-
"the
instinctive urge was now fixed in my mind: henceforth my efforts would be
towards using photography as a medium of artistic expression and away from the
traditional business side of the professional studios."
Harold Cazneaux, letter to
Jack Cato
NLA MS 5416
In 1904 Cazneaux moved
to Sydney and began photographic work at Freeman &
Co. An established studio with rooms in George Street,
it was the epitome of the "fixed traditional business
side of the professional studios". The economic
hardships of the era dictated no other choice. Cazneaux
soon bought his own camera, a Midge box quarter-plate.
Fishing Off the Rocks,
a striking action-filled outdoor photograph, was exhibited
during that first year. Cazneauxs dual career
as a "pictorialist" and a traditional photographer
had begun.
After arriving in
Sydney, Cazneaux continued a romantic relationship that had begun in South
Australia. While working at Hammer & Co. in Adelaide, Cazneaux had met
Mabel Winifred Hodge (1882-1970). In 1905 she moved to Sydney and the two
married; the partnership between them ending only with Cazneauxs death in
1953.
The Cazneauxs lived
in Riley Street, North Sydney during the first years
of their marriage. With Freeman Studios located in
the city, a ferry ride and a walk from Circular Quay
was part of Cazneauxs daily routine. With his
Midge box camera in his hand, Cazneaux discovered
that the city streets were a rich source of subject
matter. Cazneauxs photographs from this period
reflect his recognition of that visual diversity.
Horse
Ferry, Milsons Point (1908) and
Wharfies,
Circular Quay, 1910 capture
a moody phlegmatic city, while Razzle
Dazzle (c.1909) is action-filled
and spontaneous. Exhibited and illustrated widely,
Razzle Dazzle received international acclaim
and remains one of Cazneauxs most evocative
images.
Photography soon
consumed Cazneauxs life. It was more than his profession, it became his
passion; but working at a conservative photographic studio like Freemans,
while affording him financial security, required that this own creative needs
were suppressed:
-
-
"The main
output was the artificial make-up of stuffy overexposed figures against painted
backgrounds and surrounded by fake furniture and what nots."
-
Harold Cazneaux, letter to
Jack Cato
NLA MS 5416
As a consequence,
a pattern of conflict emerged between his personal "pictorialist" aesthetic and
the falsity of his work for Freemans that tormented him throughout the
next decade.
Cazneaux joined
the Photographic Society of New South Wales in 1907 and began exhibiting some
of his work in their members exhibitions. Working furiously, he had
amassed such a large body of quality work by 1908 that the Society encouraged
him to exhibit on his own. Naturally Freeman Studios regarded "pictorial"
photography as avant-garde, so Cazneaux had no choice but to develop and print
his photographs at home. The family was fortunate to avoid poisoning from his
photographic chemicals:
-
"About the
year 1907, when my home at North Sydney became my work room I had to use sundry
household articles - dishes, basins, bottles and jugs. I monopolised the dining
room and table completely during the time when my pictures were being prepared
for the one man show."
"Harold Cazneaux
Replies", 1952 Annotated copy of a speech given at the
time of a Tribute to Cazneaux by the Sydney Camera Circle and other
phtotgraphic societies. MS 5955
In 1909 Harold
Cazneaux held the first solo photographic exhibition in Australia. Well
received by the critics and public alike, it showcased seventy-six of
Cazneauxs pictorial photographs in a variety of photographic mediums.
The Australasian Photo-Reviews critic was stunned by the vision of
the thirty-one year old photographer:
-
"Where
all the exhibits show such exceptional merit it is a little difficult to single
any out for mention. We venture to prophecy that a good deal more will be heard
of Mr Cazneaux in the future".
The
Australasian Photo-Review, vol. XVI, no.3, 22 March 1909, p. 130
When these
exhibition prints were hung in London exhibits in the following years, Cazneaux
developed a formidable international reputation. Favourable reviews again
followed. The international photographic journal Photograms of the Year,
where Cazneaux himself was asked to become a regular contributor, published a
review by critic H. Snowden Ward:
-
"In one
stride Harold Cazneaux comes from the position of a very good man indeed to
rank with the few outstanding workers of the world in pictorial photography. I
place him with the dozen or more of the pioneers from whom one can expect
anything of note".
H. Snowden
Ward, Photograms of the Year, 1911, p. 54
Cazneauxs exhibition proved to be important for another reason.
It was here that he was introduced to publisher and art world leader Sydney Ure
Smith. The resulting friendship, combined with Ure Smiths immediate
recognition of Cazneauxs talent and his later patronage, had a marked
impact on Cazneauxs life:
-
"It was
at this show that I first met Mr Sydney Ure Smith and other well known artists.
They were very interested in the work and they accepted the fact that in the
hands of the artist trained in the technique of photography, work of artistic
merit could be produced".
Harold Cazneaux, letter
to Jack Cato
NLA MS 5416
In the years
following the 1909 exhibition, Cazneaux continued to consolidate his reputation
as a pictorial photographer. As an Australian photographer who never travelled
overseas, he admitted that he found his international reputation somewhat
daunting:
-
" when
I found that I had been recognised on such a level - my confidence was shaken.
I never expected such a thing. Fortunately all those early pictures of mine
were not flukes. I knew what I wanted and how to do them".
Harold Cazneaux, letter
to Jack Cato, 6 March 1951
NLA MS 5416
Cazneaux and Winnie
had become parents in 1908. They had five daughters;
Rainbow, Jean, Beryl, Carmen, Joan and one son
Harold. Throughout Cazneauxs life, particularly
during the conflict between the financial needs
of his family and his own artistic desires, he
was always able to rely on his family for personal
support. Winnie proved to be his most important
critic and his children were his best models.
Their acceptance of the camera as part of everyday
life enabled Cazneaux to experiment and expand
the parameters of the photographic world. Rainy
Day (1910) and The
Quest (1910) are
both portraits of his eldest daughter Rainbow.
In his later
years, his children worked with him in the darkroom and studio; prompting
Melbourne photographer Spencer Shier to call them "the Cazneaux family of
photographers". In 1914 Kodak held a competition entitled "A Kodak Happy
Moment". Cazneaux submitted an album of ten photographs and won first prize of
one hundred pounds. The money enabled the family to finally make a deposit on a
home in Roseville.
Ambleside as it
was then known, was far removed from the familiar
city streets where Cazneaux photographed. Set
on three suburban blocks, the garden that the
family designed and planted became a beguiling
photographic backdrop. Ambleside had been
bought from artist Gayfield Shaw and four years
later, Cazneaux photographed Shaw. The resulting
bromoil, The
Etching Press (1918)
is one of Cazneauxs first hints at a new
Australian style of photography.
Pictorial
photography had spread amongst a small group of Sydney photographers. Until the
mid 1910s they had been responding to a movement that dealt with an alien
northern climate, landscape and light. But now they began to seek a new
direction that would advance the art of pictorial photography within an
Australian context. Cazneaux recognised the problems of the early
movement.
- "Australia had not yet clearly seen
the true Australian sunlight - but there were a few workers who had seen the
light and who were striving to establish a real Australian school of thought
and action".
-
- Harold Cazneaux, letter to Jack Cato,
undated
NLA MS 5416
As a result of
these deliberations, the Sydney Camera Circle "declaration" was drawn up and
signed on 28th November 1916. The small group of six photographers
included Cazneaux, Cecil Bostock, James Stening, W.S. White, Malcolm McKinnon
and James Paton. He later noted:
-
" these
photographers pledged to work and to advance pictorial photography and to show
our own Australia in terms of sunlight rather than those of greyness and dismal
shadows".
Harold Cazneaux, letter
to Jack Cato, undated
NLA MS 5416
Although
bounding forward with his personal work and the excitement of this new
manifesto, Cazneaux was still shackled to the conservative traditional studio
system with Freeman Studios. Supporting his large family left him no other
financial alternative.
These
pressures grew too great and in 1917, he suffered what the era called "a
nervous breakdown". Bedridden for some months he realized that he could no
longer function in the studio environment. His resignation from Freemans
in 1917 was followed by the opening of his own studio. Initially located in the
city with fellow pictorialist Cecil Bostock, an unforeseen redevelopment of the
building forced him to relocate to Ambleside:
-
" lack
of suitable premises and above all lack of capital sent me home again where I
fitted out a little studio and carried out my professional work - I became so
busy with appointments there was no time to look around for a city
studio".
Harold Cazneaux, letter
to Jack Cato, undated
NLA MS 5416
Although it
was unusual at the time to work from home, Cazneaux was richly rewarded by the
move to Ambleside. Profession and passion could now merge and
Cazneauxs business was soon doing a brisk trade. Although stylish
portraits and wedding photos filled his "professional" working day, Cazneaux
was free to explore light, shadow, texture and tones in his private moments.
The Ambleside garden became an extension of his studio. Even his printed
advertisements linked a natural, light-filled environment with
photography:
-
"The
charm of successful portraiture is realised when you are taken in the natural
surroundings of your home and garden".
The Home, vol.
3, no. 2, 1 June 1922, p. 91
Sydney Ure
Smith had been following Cazneauxs career with interest since 1909. As
editor (along with Bertram Stevens) of Art in Australia, Ure Smith had
already begun to publish Cazneauxs photographs.
In 1919, he decided
to launch a new monthly magazine called The
Home and Ure Smith invited Cazneaux to become
official magazine photographer. The first issue
of The Home featured Cazneauxs light-filled
portrait, The Bamboo Blind
(1915), an image that exquisitely united his photographic
and darkroom skills.
Cazneauxs work
for The Home was extensive and diverse.
He photographed "at home" many of Sydneys
social elite, their gardens and their way of life.
He photographed artists, models and actors as
well as the city itself. Martin
Place (1925) and
Mail
Time GPO (c.1932) depicts Sydney
as a dynamic city enjoying that "long weekend"
between the wars. While Cazneaux struggled with
some of the society portrait commissions, he had
now reached a period in his life where his artistic
nature and paid photographic assignments were
complementary. Cazneaux flourished in this new-found
freedom.
One of the
most successful portait series that Cazneaux photographed was commissioned by
The Home. Called "New Idea" portraits, they combined painterly and
photographic skills. Contemporary Australian artists such as Adrian Feint, Roy
de Maistre and George Lambert painted the backdrops where The Home
models were placed and photographed by Cazneaux. The series was particularly
striking and cause much comment.
Cazneaux and
Ure Smiths professional relationship extended well beyond The Home
magazine. With new co-editor Leon Gellert, Art in Australia thrived
throughout the twenties and thirties. Many of their other special publications
featured Cazneaux photographs, including the titles Sydney
Surfing (1929), The Sydney Bridge Book (1930), The Australian
Native Bear Book (1932) and Canberra: Australias Federal
Capital (1928).
In 1934,
Cazneaux was commissioned to take a series of photographs for a book depicting
life at Frensham, a unique girls
boarding school in Mittagong. Cazneaux, accompanied by Winnie, made several
trips to the school. Welcomed by the staff and with no photographic
restrictions, Cazneauz rejoiced in the freedom. The resulting photographs have
a rare subtlety that capture the mood of this cloistered rural school. "The
closest I ever came to a personal book" was how he later described the
project.
The onset of the
Depression in the Thirties saw business slow down
in Cazneauxs studio. Then in 1934-35, Cazneaux
received one of his most interesting and challenging
commissions. BHP wanted him to photograph their
steelworks at Newcastle, New South Wales and Whyalla,
South Australia. Photographing the human figure
against an industrial landscape was not new to
Cazneaux. His photograph Knock
Off Time (1925)
is a thoughtful interpretation of man and machine.
With this BHP
commission, Cazneaux was relishing the prospect of photographing the
ever-present smoke and steam to great effect. He was sorely
disappointed:
-
"They
had the vast area of the Newcastle steelworks cleared out from top to bottom.
The whole works were then ready to be taken it was certainly spick and span but
much of the element I had hoped for had vanished".
Harold Cazneaux, letter
to Jack Cato, 9 March 1951 NLA MS
5416
Undaunted
Cazneaux "made do" and the results are striking. They were precursors to a
modernist style that was soon to overshadow pictorial photography with their
bold composition yet delicate tonal qualities.
With a certain
financial security during the mid to late thirties, Cazneaux began to explore
the Australian landscape, travelling by car with Winnie and their son,
Harold:
-
"They
sent me in my Buik car up to Iron Knob near Port Augusta, SA. There I saw and
felt the impulse of the great inland Central Australia. The mysterious Flinders
Range dominated the skyline".
Harold Cazneaux, letter
to Jack Cato, 9 March 1951 NLA MS
5416
A new world of photographic
possibilities opened for Cazneaux. He was both
a friend and admirer of the painter Hans Heysen,
whom he had photographed in 1935. Heysens
paintings were praised by some contemporary critics
as quintessentially Australian; a reflection of
a national character. Cazneaux, moved by the grandeur
and beauty of the Australian landscape with its
constantly changing light, wished to share the
painters vision. The result, Spirit
of Endurance (1937),
a majestic Australian gum, photographed at Wilpena
Pound in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia,
became one of Cazneauxs most enduring images.
(The tree survives and is now referred to as "The
Cazneaux Tree".)
In 1938
Cazneaux received the ultimate photographic accolate of his profession. He was
made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. For
Cazneaux, an Australian photographer who had never been abroad, it was a
triumphant and well-deserved international recognition.
The outbreak
of World War II meant another slow-down in Cazneauxs studio. His work for
The Home magazine has been much reduced since 1934 when Fairfax and Sons
Ltd. purchased Art in Australia Ltd. from Sydney Ure Smith and began to
trivialise the content. The magazine finally ceased publication in 1942 under
rationing pressure and falling sales. Cazneaux now turned his attention to
portrait work, particularly of soldiers and their families:
-
"Those
portraits meant a good deal to all those who were concerned and it was good to
put all ones artistry and skill into such work".
Harold Cazneaux, letter
to Jack Cato, 9 March 1951 NLA MS
5416
Then in 1941,
the war disrupted family life at Ambleside and tragedy soon struck. The
Cazneauxs twenty-one year old son Harold was killed in the defence of
Tobruk. Cazneaux was shattered; he never quite recovered from the
loss.
Professionally
Cazneaux realised he was being overtaken by new trends within the photographic
world. Pictorial photographcy was being overshadowed by the extremes of
Modernism and Cazneaux showed little or no interest. As a consequence although
he continued his studio work, much of the last decade of his life, was spent
rediscovering his own early work. Retiring gracefully, he made bromoils and
added to his extensive collection of exhibition prints.
In the early 1950s,
the photographer and historian Jack Cato had approached
Cazneaux as part of his research for his book
The Story of the Camera in Australia (1955).
As a result, Cazneaux and Cato corresponded regularly.
Their letters gave Cazneaux a rare means of reflection
on his own life as a photographer and provided
the modern researcher with important insights
into Cazneauxs aesthetic.
In 1952 Cato
hosted a Harold Cazneaux tribute evening that had been organized by Keast Burke
and Charles Walton. Magic lantern slides were accompanied by a recorded
commentary between Cazneaux and photographer Monte Luke. The evening was a
testament to Cazneaux as a great Australian photographer and toured the east
coast of Australia. The following year Cazneaux died aged
seventy-five:
-
"A
machine camera age has arrived - the pictorial movement is no more. Hundreds
are doing the same sort of thing in the same way. The quality and texture of
the photographic print has vanished hundreds and hundreds of photographers
produce prints which on the exhibition walls just become a one man show by
everybody. Few workers can be spotted on the wall by individual works of
character in subject and quality of print ... the romance and the spirit of the
pictorial movement is no more, this is no lament, its the
truth!"
Harold Cazneaux, letter
to Jack Cato, 26 October 1951 NLA MS
5416
In hindsight,
the end of the one photographic movement and the beginning of another have had
no impact on the lasting originality of Harold Cazneauxs photographic
work.
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