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| Harold Cazneaux
The Bamboo Blind 1915
silver gelatin print
Collection, Cazneaux Family
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| This exhibition presents the work of two of Australia’s most renowned and influential early 20th century photographers; Harold Cazneaux (1878-1953) and Cecil Westmoreland-Bostock (1884-1939). Two of the founding members of the Sydney Camera Circle in 1916, Cazneaux and Bostock pledged to advance support and interest in pictorial photography.
Harold Cazneaux was born in New Zealand and arrived in Australia with his family in 1889. He was drawn to the artistic potential of photography, in particular the work of pictorial photographers and in 1904 he joined Freeman's studio in Sydney. He was encouraged by his friend Bostock and his success in competition and became a freelance photographer in 1919, adopting the new modernist style of photography in the 1920s.
In 1917 Cecil Bostock produced his Portfolio of Art Photographs. After the First World War, he concentrated on commercial photography for David Jones, and industrial photography. He was also a talented bookbinder and calligrapher. Max Dupain trained in his studio as an assistant from 1930-33.
Both photographers often worked with their own children and other family members as their favourite models for studio and commissioned work. Family Portraits includes several recognisable images of children and family such as Cazneaux’s Bamboo Blind (1915) reproduced in the first issue of the influential magazine The Home in 1920 as well as family snapshots. Comprising works from the Bostock and Cazneaux family collections the exhibition also includes works not previously seen in public.
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