Exhibition: ‘The Staged Photograph’ at the Chau Chak Wing Museum at The University of Sydney

Exhibition dates: 22nd April 2023 – 4th August 2024

James Elliott (British)
‘A Week after the Derby’
c. 1855-1860
Hand-coloured stereograph (single image)
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by Sandra Savides, 2014

A short text this week as I’m not well.

What a delightful exhibition – a clean installation showcasing some beautiful, contemplative, witty and humorous images on an interesting subject.

The pathos of A Week after the Derby (c. 1855-1860, above); the gruesome humour of A Pair of Drawers (c. 1895, below); the Australian humour of The Great Australian Bite (Bight) (c. 1895, below). Staged for the camera, posed for the viewer, possessed of innocence, national pride and the delightful joy of living.

To flesh out the posting I have added bibliographic information for the artists and publishers where possible.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the Chau Chak Wing Museum for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

From costume portraits to comic and sentimental stereographs

This exhibition presents staged photographs taken between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, illuminating the popular culture of the time.
These photographs were created in the photographic studio, with its painted backgrounds and props, where people came to have fancy dress or special outfits captured. Studio photographers also created tableaux, using posed models to stage scenes to tell stories, sentimental or comic. The most popular format was the stereograph. Even the home backyard became a stage for family portraits, posed in the manner of the studio.

Featuring enlarged reproductions, and original examples of glass negatives and stereographs from the historic photograph collection, The Staged Photograph is a fascinating delve into an unfamiliar photographic history.

Text from the Chau Chak Wing Museum website

Installation views of the exhibition The Staged Photograph at the Chau Chak Wing Museum at The University of Sydney with the exhibition texts in the bottom photograph to be seen below…

The Staged Photograph

Created in the theatrical space of the 19th century photographic studio, a staged photograph used the artifice of painted backgrounds and props against which to pose costumed sitters or models arranged in a tableau.

Sitters often used this studio stage to capture a special fancy dress or other costume worn to be photographed either on the way to, or sometimes after, the ball. From the time of the popular cartes-de-visite of the 1860s into the early 20th century, these private memories, storied in albums or framed on walls, give us rare visuals of the costumes worn.

The studio photographer also found a business line in selling staged fictional scenes, which told a story or posed a humorous moment. The most popular were the genre or narrative stereographs, featuring scenes of everyday life, sentimental or comic. Beginning in the late 1850s, this market changed from a middle-class parlour entertainment to a broader popular entertainment, and the views depicted reflect this change as a new century began.

With the advent of easier amateur photography through the Kodak revolution, rather than visiting the studio, the home photographer found a stage in the backyard. Family members were posed in the manner of the studio, with a suspended curtain on the washing line or a pot plant on a stand, often still capturing a special fancy dress costume.

This exhibition explores a range of these staged photographs, a window into popular culture of the time, revealing cultural and social values.

Costume Portraits

Photographers’ studios were theatrical spaces, with props and backgrounds that could give context to a fancy dress or other costume. In Sydney in 1879, photographer E. Riisfeldt advertised that he had ‘specially painted 12 SCENES by one of the finest scenic artists, suitable for any fancy costume’. (Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February 1879)

Costume balls were a popular feature of Sydney life from the 1830s. Balls were held to raise money for charities, including children’s fancy dress balls and poster balls, popular from 1900 in Australia where costumes featured in advertisements.

While there are long accounts in newspapers of the attendees, with lists of names and costumes worn, photography offered the possibility of capturing what an outfit looked like.

Wall text from the exhibition

James Elliott (British)
‘Broken Vows’
c. 1857
Hand-coloured stereograph (single image)
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by Sandra Savides, 2014

James Elliott operated in London from approximately 1856 to 1861 and produced stereocards. According to Michael Pritchard’s Directory of London Photographers 1841-1908 he operated from two London addresses simultaneously: 9, Albany Court Yard and 48, Piccadilly.

Most famous for several hundred outstanding genre, usually beautifully tinted, on SCMs; most were elaborate studio sets, with large casts and complex accessories; several were in sets, such as “The Eve of Waterloo”; “The Wedding”, etc.; made views of England, esp. London on SCMs, which are much rarer and fairly ordinary. Often but not always used label with his name, or blind-stamp; views were extensively pirated both in England and US; he also pub. photos by W.M. Grundy.

Credit: National Stereoscopic Association with corrections and additions by Alan Griffiths and others.

Text from the Luminous-Lint website

Mark Anthony (Marc Antoine Gaudin) (French, 1804-1880)(attributed)
[Staged scene featuring five women, their fingers pointing upwards]
England c. 1855-1865
Half stereograph (single image)
Macleay Collections, Chau Chak Wing Museum
Donated by Alison Skeels, 1982

Freeman Brothers, Sydney (Australian)
[Portrait of two girls in fancy dress]
c. 1855-1865
Carte-de-visite
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney

One of the largest and most celebrated Sydney photographic studios was run by the Freeman Brothers, whose skilful portraits were much admired. This pair of entrepreneurial photographers used the latest processes, building a large, well-appointed studio and actively promoting their work through display in international exhibitions. James Freeman was also extremely well versed in the potential uses of the medium, delivering a comprehensive lecture on the topic to a Sydney society in 1858.

Text from the exhibition Colony: Australia 1770-1861 at NGV Australia 2018

Freeman and Co was established by the professional photographers William and James who arrived in Sydney from London in 1853 and 1854 respectively. Trading as Freeman Brothers, the pair opened Freeman’s Sydney Gallery of Photographic Art in 1855, specialising initially in daguerreotype portraits. James Freeman is credited with introducing the ambrotype process to the colony in 1856, and the company adopted this medium after this date. By the 1860s, the studio was busy producing carte de visite portraits, amassing nearly 30,000 negatives by 1870. In 1866 the brothers collaborated with the renowned English photographer Victor Prout, capitalising on his fine reputation in the colony and advertising themselves as ‘photographers to their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales and His Excellency the Governor.’ After William Freeman retired around 1890, the company passed into the hands of employee William Rufus George. Under George’s management in the 1890s the firm targeted a wealthy clientele, producing expensive platinum prints. The company still operates in Sydney, specialising in corporate, wedding, architectural and portrait photography.

Text from the Art Gallery of New South Wales website

G.H. Nicholas, Sydney (Australian)
[Portrait of a child holding a stereoscope]
c. 1870
Carte-de-visite
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by Judith Mackinolty, 1982

These unique photos offer an intriguing insight into pop culture history

The Chau Chak Wing Museum presents The Staged Photograph, an exhibition exploring images from the mid-19th and early 20th centuries from Australia, Britain and the United States.

Australians embraced photography long before smartphone cameras enabled us to capture and curate every moment of our lives.

A new exhibition of rarely seen images at the Chau Chak Wing Museum transports us to a time when costumes had to be captured in a studio, and when fictional photographs, posing models in a story or comic scene, were sold and bought for home entertainment.

The Staged Photograph presents images taken between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, by professional and amateur photographers, from Australia, Britain and the United States.

Exhibition curator Jan Brazier said: “The Staged Photograph is a fascinating dive into an unfamiliar photographic history. Its images are a diverse and intriguing insight into the role staged photographs played in our lives and the popular culture of the time.”

Studio: from the ballroom to bath soap

Costume balls were immensely popular from the 1830s. From the 1860s, families in their fancy dress costumes or special outfits could be professionally photographed in a studio complete with props and a painted background.

“These photos were private memories kept in frames or the family album, where undoubtedly many are still to be found,” said Jan Brazier.

Communities held balls to raise money for good causes and from 1900 they included the ‘poster ball’ when businesses would pay fundraisers to have someone wear a costume festooned with advertisements for their products. These balls were as popular in high society as in country towns and suburbs. Costumes for Sunlight Soap, Silver Starch laundry powder, Jelline jelly crystals and Silver Drop self-raising flour can be seen in the exhibition.

Stereograph, mass home entertainment

The ‘online’ experience of the 19th century, the stereograph used two nearly identical photographs to create a 3D image when seen through a viewer called a stereoscope. Originally a middle-class activity, with the family gathering in the parlour to enjoy the images, it became more affordable by the 1890s and the mass home entertainment of its time. Its transformation saw millions of stereographs in use worldwide.

Views of exotic locations were by far the most popular stereographs for ‘armchair travelling’, but commercial photographers also created fictional s­­­­­­­­cenes using actors and props to tell highly theatrical stories. Sentimental and comical scenes were big sellers.

Some of the most popular themes are still familiar – love, courtship, marriage, children and drunkenness – but others are of their time, taken from vaudeville jokes or the prejudices of the age. Both Irish servant women and African American plantation workers were held up to racist ridicule. One popular genre was college girls taking part in dormitory ‘larks and pranks’. Another was financial ruin from horse racing.

“The visual humour revealed in these stereographs provides a way for us to understand and interrogate a previous era’s cultural and social values,” said Jan Brazier.

The Home Studio

Home photography took off when smaller, more portable cameras became available, and the Kodak revolution arrived in the early 20th century. Amateur photographers captured special family moments using the backyard as a set. Family members posed as if in a studio, with a suspended curtain on the washing line or a pot plant on a stand, often still capturing a special costume. There was also a practical reason to work outdoors: better light.

Our photographic collection

All photographs are drawn from the Macleay Collections of the Chau Chak Wing Museum. These photographs are some of the more than 60,000 in the University’s social history photograph collection. The majority were donated and cover the mid-19th to 20th century.

“It doesn’t surprise me the Museum’s historical photographic exhibitions are so popular as people make a direct connection with our past ways of seeing ourselves. Anyone interested in Australia’s photography, history and early pop culture will enjoy this current exhibition,” Jan Brazier said.

Text from the Chau Chak Wing Museum website

Rose Stereograph Company, Melbourne (Australian)(publisher)
‘A Pair of Drawers’
c. 1895
Stereograph (single image)
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by Sandra Savides, 2014

Rose Stereograph Company, Melbourne (Australian)(publisher)
‘You Hussy, let my Husband alone’
c. 1895
Stereograph (single image)
Macleay Collections, Chau Chak Wing Museum
donated by Sandra Savides, 2014

The Rose Stereograph Company

The publishing output of this long-lived firm (which operated from about 1880 until it went into liquidation in 2017) was phenomenal, and when the remains of what must have been a vast photographic archive went on sale in June 2021 with Lloyds Auctions…

According to a brief history by postcard collector Leo Fitzgerald, the Rose story began when Cornish sea captain William Rose came to the Victorian Ballarat gold fields from California and married Grace Ash at Ballarat in 1861. The couple’s son, George, was born in 1862 at the town of Clunes. He worked in his father’s shoe shop in Chapel Street, Prahran, between 1877 and 1880 (apparently producing his earliest photos from those premises) and began spending his Sundays selling photos to picnic parties in the Dandenong hills. Finding his niche in photography, he moved to a new address at Armadale and founded his own firm publishing stereographic views. Over the years he travelled to many countries and recorded numerous important historic events with his stereographic camera equipment, opening offices in Sydney, Wellington and London. His images from Korea have become especially celebrated in Korea, where they represent an extremely rare glimpse of the nation in 1904, before the onset of the destruction wrought by the wars of the 20th century. …

Collector and researcher Ron Blum, whose excellent books built on Leo Fitzgerald’s work, wrote that George’s son Walter took over the business sometime before 1931, selling it in that year to long-time employees Edward Gilbert and Herbert Cutts… George’s wife, Elizabeth, died in 1929, and both George’s sons died before him. With no longer any legal interest in the company he had founded, George kept on taking photographs for the old firm, travelling around Australia in a mobile darkroom and camping along the way. He worked almost until his death in 1942, aged 80… The Rose Stereographic Company continued under the stewardship of Herbert “Bert” Cutts, who brought his son Neil into the business in the 1950s.

Greg Ray. “The Rose Stereograph Company: a snapshot,” on the Photo Time Tunnel website July 16, 2021 [Online] Cited 23/09/2023

Rose Stereograph Company, Melbourne (Australian)(publisher)
‘The Great Australian Bite (Bight)’
c. 1895
Stereograph (single image)
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by Sandra Savides, 2014

George Rose was born in Clunes, Victoria, in 1861. He did not follow his father into boot-making, but was interested in astronomy and natural history. He was unconventional, of rather eccentric and Bohemian character. After moving to Melbourne in 1876, George developed his skills as a photographer, especially in the stereoscopic field – what is known as 3D photography today. He founded the Rose Stereographic Company in 1880. In 1901 George recorded the celebrations for the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York, and in the following years travelled across Australia and over 35 countries taking three-dimensional photos. By 1907 his business employed six people – two males and four females; at its peak, staff numbered around 20. In 1913 the Rose Stereographic Company began manufacturing “real photo” postcards. George’s son Walter managed the company, allowing his father to concentrate on taking the photographs. In 1931 the business was sold to two long-time employees, Edward Gilbert and Herbert (Bert) Cutts. George Rose died of cancer in 1942, having outlived both his sons, but the business remained in the Cutts family for many years before it finally closed down in March 2017.

Information from the book George Rose – The Postcard Era by Ron Blum.

C.H. Graves, Universal Photo Art Co (American)
‘How Bridget served the POTATOES UNDRESSED. ‘I’ll not take off another STITCH if I lose me JOB’ ‘
c. 1897
Stereograph (single image)
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by Sandra Savides, 2014

The Universal Photo Art Company was one of several business titles under which photographer Carlton Harlow Graves sold his photographs late in his career. He was the son of Jesse Albert Graves, an important early worker who was based in the Delaware Water Gap area of Pennsylvania in the 1860-1880 time frame and produced some 500 generally fine scenic views of the western part of the state. Carlton learned the photographic art from his father and moved to Philadelphia to began producing on his own in about 1880. In his early years, he seems to have taken all the views which he published, but he soon began to buy or pirate images from others. Stereoviews issued under his own name are extremely rare.

At its peak, The Universal Photo Art Company seems to have been a rather substantial outfit. In addition to the headquarters offices and production facilities in Philadelphia, there was a western branch in Naperville, Ill., under F. A. Messerschmidt as general manager. There are numbers listed to almost to 5,000, although the number of individual photos actually used is only about 1,300. By the late 1890’s, C. H. Graves company became a major publisher offering “Art Nouveau Stereographs” on light gray curved mounts. His trade list offered excellent views of hunting scenes, Jamaica, Japan, Java, New York City, Palestine and others. To compete with low priced lithographs and copies, Graves offered his “Universal Series” or “Universal Views” on black mounts with no credit to himself. These have the number and the title in the negative and were sold at a reduced price from the regular “Art Nouveau” issues. Graves also offered boxed sets but they were not sold in the quantities of Underwood and Underwood, the Keystone View Company and H. C. White. The company seems to have been active until about 1910 when its stock of negatives were sold to Underwood & Underwood and presumably went from there to the Keystone View Company with the rest of the Underwood photos.

Paul Rubinstein. “Universal Photo Art Company,” on the Yellowstone stereoviews website Nd [Online] Cited 07/07/2024

C.H. Graves, Universal Photo Art Co (American)
‘Rocky Mountain telephone line’
1895-1905
Stereograph (single image)
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by Sandra Savides, 2014

Keystone View Company (American)
‘Bliss disturbed’
c. 1903
Stereograph
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by Sandra Savides, 2014

The Keystone View Company was founded in 1892 in Meadville, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. by amateur photographer B. L. Singley (Benneville Lloyd Singley). The trade list at the end of 1892 consisted of only a hundred titles but by 1940 they had commercially produced more than 40,000 titles. …

The views sold by the company in the U.K. from 1898 to 1906 were distributed under the name ‘The Fine-Art Photographers’ Publishing Co.’ and included instructions on how to view them with a ‘Realistiscope’; the company were manufacturing and selling stereoscopes from 1898 onwards.

There was an increased popularity of stereographs between 1898 and 1906, during which Keystone (like Underwood & Underwood) entered the box-set market. Along with topographical, nature, events and genre-view scenes, Keystone also began an Educational department in 1898 which issued sets illustrating geography, commerce, technology, history and natural studies.

After 1920 the Keystone View Company was the major global publisher of stereoviews, between 1915 and 1921 they had bought the negatives of nearly all of their competitors. With offices all over the world at this time the company was successful, especially from the sales of World War I stereoview sets.

The Keystone View Company maintained regular production right up until 1939 but continued to manufacture views for optometric purposes, with individual orders for stereoviews being filled up until the early 1970s.

Rebecca. “Keystone View Company,” on The Stereoscopy Blog 3rd January 2021 [Online] Cited 07/07/2024

Lorna Studios, Glebe (Australian)
[Sunlight Soap Girl]
1905-1915
Cabinet card
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated from Lydia Bushell, 1983

George Henry Hawkins, Sydney (Australian)
[Four children in fancy dress featuring the products, Jelline and Silver Drop Flour]
1910-1930
Glass negative, half-plate
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by R. Hawkins, 1988

George Henry Hawkins, Sydney (Australian)
[Lily dressed in costume as ‘Victoria’]
1910-1930
Glass negative, quarter-plate
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by R. Hawkins, 1988

J.G. Park, Leichhardt (Australian)
[Portrait of a young Jean Cunningham and Master Hurlstone in English court costumes]
c. 1914-1920s
Glass negative
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by J. Park, 1981

Scottish-born John Gartly Park (1878-1945) established his photographic studio at his home in Francis Street, Leichhardt around 1914. He was active in the local community, a member of the Loyal Orange Lodge, and a choir and orchestra conductor for the lodge and church.

His collection of glass negative portraits includes a small number of sitters in costume. Posed against Park/s decorative studio background during and after the First World War years, we are reminded of the popularity of fancy dress events, of which these images are rare photographic evidence. Surnames of his sitters are scratched into the edge of the negatives providing clues as to the identities.

The Park Collection was donated by his son, John Park in 1981.

Wall text from the exhibition

J.G. Park, Leichhardt (Australian)
[Portrait of Miss Orr in fancy dress as Britannia]
c. 1914-1920s
Glass negative
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by J Park, 1981

J.G. Park, Leichhardt (Australian)
[Portrait of Miss Larsen wearing a Silver Star Starch costume]
c. 1914-1920s
Glass negative Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by J. Park, 1981

Oliver Emery, Sydney (Australian)
[Three boys posed outside against a makeshift backdrop]
c. 1914-1930
Glass negative, half-plate
Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated by O. Emery, 1983

Chau Chak Wing Museum – The University of Sydney
Level 1, University Place, Camperdown, NSW 2006
Phone: 02 9351 2812

Opening hours:
Monday to Friday (until 9pm Thursdays) 9am – 5pm
Saturday and Sunday 12 – 4pm
Closed public holidays

Chau Chak Wing Museum website

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