Monochrome portraits of unsmiling people might seem dull at first glance, but a re-examination of some of the oldest photographs in WA's state collection is turning up surprising stories.
Monochrome portraits of unsmiling people might seem dull at first glance, but a re-examination of some of the oldest photographs in the state collection is turning up surprising stories.
"For the first time, you could see an image or a person or a landscape from the other side of the world," Professor Lydon says. "We see the family looking at the camera, except John is looking off to one side, and it fits in very much with what we know about his career," Professor Lydon says. "He was actually surveying the west coast [of Australia] and he had a terrible accident. He fell 15 metres [from the mast of a ship] and sustained a terrible wound above his right eye," she says."So when we look at the photograph, they're all staring straight back in the camera, but he's looking off to one side."You can almost make out this kind of little indentation on his forehead, which, again, is probably from that terrible accident.
"But looking at this photograph, we see Mary and her father, and her father is off, having adventures around the world."The research project has also been looking into how photographs were made in the state."The more collections we look in we're finding more photographs from this short period between 1857 and 1859, when we know that these two American-born photographers, Townsend Duryea and his brother Sanford, had come to Australia," Professor Lydon said.
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