Photography in Australia

[1] Lucas, late commander of the Naval School expedition, intended to sell his camera and equipment which he put on display in the office of Messrs. Joubert and Murphey, in Macquarie Place.

[2] Commercial photography began on 12 December 1842 when photographic portraits, at a cost of one guinea each, were made, using the daguerreotype process, on the roof of The Royal Hotel, Sydney.

[9] Important early professional photographers include Edwin Dalton, William Glover Webb Freeman (1809–1855), Thomas Foster Chuck (1826–1898), Walter Woodbury (1834-1885), Nicholas Caire (1837–1918) and John Lindt (1845–1926).

In the early 20th century, Frank Hurley, was a noted photographer whose subject matter included Antarctic explorations, led by Douglas Mawson and Ernest Shackleton, and the battlefields of the First World War.

[17] Dupain had learned his craft, while apprenticed to the Pictorialist Cecil Bostock, but abandoned the soft-focus pictorial style for a sharp-focus modernist approach.

A vibrant and creative culture emerged with many photographers establishing commercial studios around the thriving arts precinct in Collins Street in buildings such as the Grosvenor Chambers.

Other influential photographers such as Athol Shmith, Dr Julian Smith and Norman Ikin set up studios nearby.