Wheel of Youth

"Place all your effort, not in mere technique, but more so in the perfection of the art of selection and creative ideas in subject matter. Remember, too, that imagination also is necessary to focus those pictures in your mind".
 
Harold Cazneaux replies, 1952
NLA MS 5955
 

The outbreak of World War II meant another slow-down in Cazneaux’s 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 one’s artistry and skill into such work".

Harold Cazneaux replies, 1951
NLA MS 5955

Then in 1941, the war disrupted family life at Ambleside and tragedy soon struck. The Cazneaux’s 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 author 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 Cazneaux’s 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 no lament, it’s the truth!"

Harold Cazneaux replies, 1951
NLA MS 5955

In hindsight, the end of the one photographic movement and the beginning of another have had no impact on the lasting originality of Harold Cazneaux’s photographic work.

Nature’s Armature The Wheel of Youth
Nature’s Armature
c. 1935 Sydney. Gelatin silver photograph
32.7 x 26 (NLA Accession # C15-2)
nla.pic-an2381204
The Wheel of Youth
1929 Dee Why, Sydney. Chloro-bromide
34.8 x 28.3 (NLA Accession # C15-13)
nla.pic-an2383705
Aerial Antics Razzle Dazzle
Aerial Antics
1930 Manly, Sydney. Gelatin silver photograph
32.5 x 29.8 (NLA Accession # C15-8)
nla.pic-an2383687
Razzle Dazzle
c. 1909 Bondi, Sydney. Gelatin silver photograph
16.3 x 22.7 (NLA Accession # C23-5)
nla.pic-an2383966-1
The Life Class Julian Ashton, the Art Class
The Life Class
1931 Sydney. Gelatin silver photograph
24.1 x 34.7 (NLA Accession # C21-6)
nla.pic-an2383936-1
Julian Ashton, the Art Class
c. 1920 Sydney. Gelatin silver photograph
30.9 x 22.1 (NLA Accession # C22-9)
nla.pic-an2383959-1
Rainy Day aka Dawn on a Rainy Day The Quest
Rainy Day aka Dawn on a Rainy Day
1910 Sydney. Gelatin silver photograph (Kodura Etching Brown)
29.5 x 22.8 (NLA Accession # C16-3)
nla.pic-an2383802
The Quest
1910 Sydney. Gelatin silver photograph (Kodura Etching Brown)
33.3 x 26.4 (NLA Accession # C16-1)
nla.pic-an2383799-2
Anna Pavlova Dame Nellie Melba
Anna Pavlova
1926 Sydney. Chloro-bromide
26.7 x 22.6 (NLA Accession # C20-4)
nla.pic-an2383908
Dame Nellie Melba
1921 Sydney. Gelatin silver photograph
34.9 x 25.5 (NLA Accession # C20-1)
nla.pic-an2720602
The Etching Press aka Pulling the Proof Hans Heysen
The Etching Press aka Pulling the Proof
1918 Sydney. Bromoil
35.7 x 27.8 (NLA Accession # C21-8)
Gayfield Shaw, artist and etcher.
nla.pic-an2383940
Hans Heysen
1935 Hahndorf, SA. Gelatin silver photograph
37.7 x 30.3 (NLA Accession # C21-7)
nla.pic-an2383938
Norman Lindsay The Parasol aka The New Sunshade
Norman Lindsay
c. 1921. Bromoil
31.2 x 26.7 (NLA Accession # C22-7)
nla.pic-an2383957-1
The Parasol aka The New Sunshade
1921 Sydney. Gelatin silver photograph
34 x 28.8 (NLA Accession # C19-9)
nla.pic-an2383893-1
Autumn Leaves aka Portrait in Sunshine  
Autumn Leaves aka Portrait in Sunshine
1931 Sydney. Gelatin silver photograph
34.1 x 27.1 (NLA Accession # C19-3)
nla.pic-an2383883
 

I Sydney Skyline I Steam & Sunshine I Sydney, Old & New I
I
Spirit of Endurance I Frensham I The Home I
I The Wheel of Youth I
The Cazneaux Family of Photographers I

I The Catalogue I Exhibition Home Page I

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Last updated 16 December 2002