SALLY JACKSON SAYS:
Collecting has only just come into my life since around 2018. I was working at the National Film and Sound Archive as the Film Curator, when a colleague, Jennifer Coombes, was working on a photographic exhibition, Starstruck – Australian Movie Portraits about how photography is used in the film production process. During the research phase it became apparent that a female photographer working at the Cinesound film studios in the 1940s had been missed. It got me thinking that if we, the so-called experts in the field, could miss her then how many other women photographers were unknown or uncelebrated? Given that my Mum had been a photographic retoucher it started me thinking that I was sure that I could fine more. And I have.
Spending evenings trawling the wonderful online resources now available and hunting up reference books on Australian photography I started to pull together a list of names and studios. Soon I had several hundred names and it was around that time I knew I needed to find their work – their photographs.
And so began my collecting passion for photographs taken by female photographers. It wasn’t as simple as looking up their names on the internet because they weren’t there. So, in 2019 I retired from the NFSA and committed myself to making these photographers more well known. With bushfires and lockdowns heading our way I was able to dedicate my time to this pursuit. Afterall, with no opportunity for world travel what better way to spend my time than hunker down with the internet and find more photographers and their work. With the house becoming increasingly more crowded it was time to do something with all this and so… in 2021 with more photographs than I had space for, my passion was made public by the release of my website photoria.com.au and I’ve never looked back.
Collecting photographs by women photographers is easy if you know the studio where they worked and the approximate years they were there. Obviously, if they use their name, e.g. Mina Moore or Pegg Clarke then snap it up quickly. But mostly the individual is hidden behind the studio name for instance the Home Studio in Brunswick or more confusingly F E Elliott. The first was run by Olga Dougall between 1928 and 1954. The second is not Frederick Ernest Elliott but Florence Elizabeth Elliott who started her career in the late 1870s in Melbourne. All I have to say is thank heaven for the deep hunger and fascination we have to uncover our genealogical roots otherwise I’d still be at the NFSA wondering when I was going to leave…
My collection includes a number of formats: daguerreotypes, cartes des visites up to silver gelatine prints – there’s even a salt paper print from the early 1860s – and postcards from the early 1900s. Photoria covers the period 1850 to 1950 and has provided for me a great joy in making these women known and being able to show their works. For me this is the essence of collecting – to be able to share the knowledge you build when creating a collection. Contact Sally at photoria.com.au.
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