Shooting the Picture: Press photography in Australia

By Sally Young and Fay Anderson

Shooting The Picture is the story of Australian press photography from 1888 to today—the power of the medium, seismic changes in the newspaper industry, and photographers who were often more colourful than their subjects. This groundbreaking book explores our political leaders and campaigns, crime, war and censorship, international events, disasters and trauma, sport, celebrity, gender, race and migration. It maps the technological evolution in the industry from the dark room to digital, from picturegram machines to iPhones, and from the death knock to the ascendancy of social media. It raises the question whether these changes will spell the end of traditional press photography as we know it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Aug 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9780522868562

Book preview

This is number one hundred and sixty-nine in the

second numbered series of the

Miegunyah Volumes

made possible by the

Miegunyah Fund

established by bequests

under the wills of

Sir Russell and Lady Grimwade.

‘Miegunyah’ was the home of

Mab and Russell Grimwade

from 1911 to 1955.

Shooting The Picture

Press photography in Australia

FAY ANDERSON AND SALLY YOUNG WITH NIKKI HENNINGHAM

THE MIEGUNYAH PRESS

An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited

11–15 Argyle Place South, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia

[e-mail]

www.mup.com.au

First published 2016

Text © Fay Anderson and Sally Young, 2016

Images © individual contributors

Design and typography © Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2016

This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publishers.

Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted and images reproduced in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher.

Text design and typesetting by Patrick Cannon, Cannon Typesetting

Cover design by Philip Campbell Design

Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Anderson, Fay, author.

Shooting the picture: press photography in Australia/Fay Anderson and Sally Young with Nikki Henningham.

9780522868555 (paperback)

9780522868562 (ebook)

Photojournalism—Australia—History.

Photojournalists—Australia—History.

Young, Sally, 1975– author.

Henningham, Nicola, 1960– author.

070.490994

This research was supported under Australian Research Council’s Linkage funding scheme (project number LP120200458) including financial and project support from the National Library of Australia, and project support from the Walkley Foundation.

This publication was supported by a Faculty of Arts Publication Subsidy Scheme from the University of Melbourne.

To Alex, John, Peter and Norma. And thank you also to the ‘Gin Club’

and the ‘Melbourne Uni dinner group’ (FA).

To Jay, Abigail and Megan.

Thank you also to Kathy, Frances and Joe (SY).

FOREWORD

IT IS ONLY partly true, the cliché that today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper. This is not just because fish and chips long ago ceased to be wrapped in newsprint. Nor is it because newspapers are perhaps in terminal decline and there may soon be no such thing as tomorrow’s newspaper. It is true that most of the words in newspapers vanish, almost without trace, not long after publication. I, for instance, have probably written many millions of words for newspapers and magazines, most of which, within hours, have been forgotten, even by me. Even outstanding pieces of newspaper journalism—their form, the quality of the writing—rather quickly lose their memorability, their vitality.

But photographs, great photographs, transcend time. They lodge in the memory whole, a moment frozen in time and therefore timeless. A great newspaper photograph, in the words of Stephen Dupont, who is quoted in this book, ‘has the greatest power to instil memory into people’.

Over more than four decades, I worked with some of the best photographers in Australia, first as a reporter and later as an editor. In many ways, the photographers I worked with taught me how to be a good reporter. They taught me how to see what I was witnessing, how to approach people, sometimes people who were in the midst of profound grief. They taught me, as much as any reporter, how to be still sometimes, let people speak, let them alone, be patient and alive to what was around me. That is how some of the best photographers do their work.

The relationship between reporters and photographers is a complex one. In my experience, in the newsroom, reporters and photographers did not share a common space. Perhaps that has changed recently but I doubt it. Changes in culture are not something newspapers do all that well. I never questioned why we reporters were separated in this way from photographers. It meant that, in the main, reporters and photographers did not form close friendships with each other, across the geographic divide so to speak. It meant that we often did not understand each other, the pressures we were under, our sense of what made a story, the things we each brought to the work, the challenges of getting it right, the picture and the words together, enhancing each other.

I worked with many of the photographers who tell their stories in this book and who reflect on their work, what has influenced them, and their relationships with editors and reporters. This book is rich with the voices of photographers, old and young, male and female.

I always knew how important photographs were to newspapers—well to some newspapers anyway. My years at the Sun News-Pictorial during the 1970s—the newspaper was aptly named—taught me to love photography, value it, and understand that many times, a photograph tells a story that words cannot tell. At the Sun, we all thought that the broadsheets used photographs badly—too small, often badly cropped, static, the photographs overwhelmed by too many words.

This of course changed dramatically in the 1990s. I think that Australian broadsheets were among the first to use photographs as if they were as important and informative as other forms of reporting, able to enhance the writing and even tell a story that words could not manage. Some of the great photographers I worked with were at the Age, and they helped change the paper. They certainly had a profound influence on me as editor.

But I did not know them the way I knew the reporters, some of whom were longstanding friends. The great photographers have not, in the main, written their personal stories. They have not been the subjects of biographies, like some well-known journalists. They have mostly spoken to us only through their work, and while their work lives on, their personal stories, their views about newspapers and about the role of photography in newspapers, have hardly ever been told.

Perhaps this is because the language of photographers is not words. Indeed, the industrial agreements for photographers and reporters were designed to ensure that each did not encroach on the other’s territory. Photographers were forbidden from using words, and reporters were not allowed to take photographs. (I wonder how many of the great photographers could write well and would have made terrific reporters given half a chance.) This is a great pity because I think it has meant that so few photographers have written—or even talked about—their often remarkable personal histories in newspapers.

One of the strengths of this book is that it tells some of these histories. But it also examines the many ways photography has told Australian stories in newspapers, and how photographs have profoundly influenced the way we have witnessed and regarded important, and not so important, events. It examines how technological change—the use of colour, the coming of the digital camera and the rise of digital media—has changed news photography and the work of professional photographers.

It looks at Australian history and Australian society by examining photographs that have captured and, in some cases, influenced historic changes in Australia’s social and political life. It is a fascinating story told with vigour and drama—Australian history seen through the lens of the newspaper photographer, who in many ways, even more than reporters, has recorded the first rough draft of our history.

And in that telling of Australian history, the authors have given us the life stories of some of Australia’s best known and best loved photographers. They have deepened our appreciation of the photographs that remain lodged in our collective and individual memories.

Some of the photographers in this book are among the bravest people I have known. Some of them have witnessed awful tragedies. I think it is wonderful that they can, in this book and in the longer interviews that will be housed in the National Library, talk, often for the first time, about what they experienced and how it affected them. In a sense what struck me most, even though I knew it of course, was that unlike reporters, photographers had to be there, in a bushfire or a flood, in a riot or a war zone; be there in the thick of chaos and danger and human misery to get the photograph that would tell the story that even the best reporter could not tell.

Reading this book, I remembered how on some assignments, the photographer I was with urged me on when I wanted to turn back because I thought it too dangerous to go on and I knew that I could write a story without risking injury or worse. When we were covering the 1983 bushfires, for instance. Or in Liverpool during the race riots in 1981, when the photographer shamed me into going into the heart of the rioting mob to describe what was happening rather than go back to the hotel and report it from the television coverage. Some of the photographers in this book made me a better reporter and a better editor.

This is not a book of photography, though there are some wonderful photographs in the book. In many ways, it’s an old-fashioned narrative history, the story zipping along, engaging the reader, the way all good narrative history manages to do. It is lively in tone, and it is written with skill and clarity and excitement. It does not avoid difficult issues, the ethical issues for instance, that are raised by news photography.

Photographs, like reporting, do not convey some objective truth. Like reporting, photographs can be unfair. Photographs can be cropped to change their meaning. Photographs can be digitally altered, in subtle ways sometimes, but sometimes so drastically that they tell a lie. The photographers talk about these issues with sensitivity and understanding but never dogmatically. There are no easy answers to some of the issues they raise, though now, more than ever, we need a set of agreed ethical rules for journalism in general and for photography in particular. I say this because most people are sceptical about the objectivity or fairness of much reporting, but they are not nearly as sceptical about the ‘truth’ of photographs. Some of the best-remembered and most significant photographs—the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima during the Pacific War, for instance—were staged. Does that change their ‘truth’? Not necessarily. But the fact that some of these photographs were staged and this was not revealed at the time of publication is a huge ethical problem.

This is a book for people who have a relationship with newspapers or who now have a relationship with the digital platforms of newspapers—which is most of us. Technology is changing everything in journalism, but some things remain unchanged in the new-media world—a world that in some ways is still in its infancy. The force of great photographs cannot be replaced by dazzling graphics and instant video presentations, which, like words, slip away and are quickly forgotten. Great photographs tell stories, capturing moments that, in a sense, are forever remembered, and experienced, outside the tyranny of time. This book honours those people who gave us the world in unforgettable images.

Michael Gawenda

August 2016

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Photographer Biographies

1  Press Photography in Australia, 1880–2015

2  From the Darkroom to Digital

3  Behind the Lens: Working Lives

4  International Events and the View from Australia

5  Australians, Allies and the Enemy

6  Campaigns and Leaders

7  Media Power and Photographs

8  Photographing Social Change

9  ‘The Talent’: Visual Narratives of Women, Children and Celebrity

10  Crime and the Body

11  Scorched Earth: Disaster and Trauma

12  Sports Photography

13  Shooting the Picture: Then and Now

Endnotes

References

Index

PREFACE

HOW DO YOU choose ninety-five images from millions of photographs? How do you write a history of Australian press photography that captures the many brilliant images and wonderful, talented characters, but also charts the historical trends—including changes in technology, media and social mores—that have shaped press photography? The authors faced that enormous task in writing this book.

Our project began in 2012 with a grant from the Australian Research Council, financial support from the National Library and research support from the Walkley Foundation. While we studied many photographs, newspaper articles, publications and collections of archival material, one of the cornerstones of our approach was to conduct oral history interviews with photographers to give voice to their insights and experiences. We began interviewing in 2014 and interviewed sixty photographers, ranging in age from thirty-two to ninety-four years. They worked across a range of newspapers and geographic locations. Over half were retired. The rest were still working, either as staff photographers at newspapers or as freelancers. Sadly, there were several news photographers who passed away before we could interview them, and some who were too frail to interview. Many were from an era when the photographers were often more colourful than their subjects.

This book begins with the first known photographs published in Australian newspapers and ends by discussing the many dramatic shifts in press photography occurring today. It is published at a time of momentous change in the industry. The book is the beginning of a conversation about the history of press photography and the role of photographers and their pictures. It is not the end of the story. A photograph can only show what is in frame, and a book faces similar constraints. A photographer can zoom out to try to show the viewer as much as possible, but there will still be many things that are not visible in the final photograph, including what was happening off to the side, behind the photographer, and even in his or her head as they took the photograph. This book is similarly unable to show or tell everything. Choices had to be made about what to include and exclude.

One of those choices was to focus upon national news rather than local news. In terms of newspaper companies and papers, there is a greater focus on those that survived the twentieth century. The book also naturally reflects the stories of those photographers we were able to locate and who agreed to be interviewed about their careers and experiences. One of the most difficult choices we faced was about which photographs to include. Our selections and omissions should not be read as a judgement about quality. Rather than trying to choose the ‘best’ photographs of all time, we tried to select photographs that illustrate shifts and traditions in photography practice, technology, newspaper values, photographers’ working conditions and rituals, collective memory, and social changes affecting audience reception of photographs.

We would have loved to be able to include many more photographs but were restricted by availability and the desire to have some balance geographically and between outlets, but also by copyright permissions and fees, which were a significant cost for this book. We found that publisher archives were sometimes missing material or details about photographs. By-lines were not common until the 1980s, so in some cases, it has been difficult to correctly identify the photographer. We have therefore made every effort to provide accurate details for photographs but would be pleased to hear of any further details or corrections.

Fay Anderson and Sally Young

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THE RESEARCH FOR this book was made possible by a three year Linkage Project grant from the Australian Research Council. We would also like to sincerely thank our Linkage Project partners, the National Library of Australia (NLA) and the Walkley Foundation, for their invaluable help and support. Our special thanks go to Margy Burn, Shelly Grant, Kevin Bradley and Rhys Kay at the NLA, and to Louisa Graham and Lauren Dixon at the Walkley Foundation. We are also grateful to the Arts Faculty at the University of Melbourne for providing a publication subsidy grant, which enabled us to purchase copyright images used in this book. The project was originally housed at the Centre for Advancing Journalism, which provided project-management support, and then at the School of Social and Political Sciences, the University of Melbourne. The School of Media, Film and Journalism and the Faculty of Arts at Monash University have also provided immense assistance. We would like to thank our friends and colleagues at the University of Melbourne and Monash University for their advice and generosity. Particular thanks to Deb Anderson, Stephanie Brookes, Phil Chubb and Mia Lindgren. And, at MUP, to Sally Heath, Cathy Smith and Lucy Davison.

Michael Gawenda was the catalyst for this project and encouraged us throughout. Kate Darian-Smith was a project investigator whose input was varied and included conducting interviews, contributing ideas and suggestions, and project-management assistance. We also had a wonderful team of research assistants who helped with many different aspects of the project and this book. We are extremely grateful for the incredible work of Nikki Henningham, Kaye Quek, Amanda McKittrick, Maria Rae and Kate Farhall. Mariaa Randall provided advice and information about the Koori Mail and about Indigenous history and newspapers. Our thanks also go to our steering committee members for their advice and support: Margy Burn, Naomi Cass, Kate Darian-Smith, Lauren Dixon, Kate Evans, Louisa Graham, Shelly Grant, Stuart Macintyre, Chris McAuliffe and Margaret Simons. Thank you also to Gavan McCarthy and Ailie Smith at the University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre.

We wish to gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by Newspix and Fairfax Syndication, as well as other newspaper agencies, the National Library, state libraries and individual photographers who supplied us with images.

We would like to express our gratitude to Bruce Howard, who acted as a special adviser on this project and contributed greatly of his time and expertise, including reading drafts and supplying additional information. Clive Mackinnon and Terry Phelan also read draft chapters and provided much appreciated information about the historical and technological aspects of press photography. Frances Dyke, Catherine Merchant and Neville Waller generously advised us. The usual disclaimer applies: we alone are responsible for any errors or omissions in the final book.

Several photographers very generously gave their time to talk to a public audience with us and shared their knowledge and experiences at conferences and other public events; thank you to Kate Geraghty, Justin McManus, Andrew Meares, Julie Millowick, Simon O’Dwyer, Jason South and the State Library of Victoria.

Finally, we wish especially to thank the photographers who generously gave their time to tell their stories, reflect on their experiences or send us information. This book would not have been possible without their candour, insight and kindness. It was a privilege to hear their life stories. Our sincere thanks to Tony Ashby, Barry Baker, Keith Barlow, Barat Ali Batoor, Mervyn Bishop, Ray Blackburn, Craig Borrow, Mike Bowers, Nigel Brennan, Lloyd Brown, Peter Bull, Verity Chambers, Andrew Chapman, Bryan Charlton, Lukas Coch, David Dare Parker, Stephen Dupont, Julia Featherstone, Kate Geraghty, Yvette Grady, Lorrie Graham, Stephen Grove, Leigh Henningham, Phil Hillyard, Bruce Howard, Clive Hyde, John Ibbs, Julian Kingma, John Lamb, Dennis Lingane, Bill McAuley, Clive Mackinnon, Justin McManus, Peter McNamara, Russell McPhedran, Guy Magowan, Andrew Meares, Lyndon Mechielsen, Karleen Minney, Nick Moir, Barry Norman, Renee Nowytarger, Colleen Petch, Terry Phelan, Alan Porritt, Bruce Postle, Gary Ramage, Ray Sizer, Jason South, Penny Stephens, Rick Stevens, Graham Tidy, Darren Tindale, Jay Town, Neville Waller, Grant Wells, Susan Windmiller, Angela Wylie and several who wished to remain anonymous.

Our apologies to the many photographers we were unable to interview or were not able to interview in time for this book. More publications and resources from this project will be forthcoming.

Throughout this book, any quotes that appear without a citation are from interviews conducted by the authors for the National Library of Australia (see ‘References’). Several of our interviewees did not want to be identified, so to protect their identities, quotations from their interviews are provided in the text with no endnote or bibliographic reference. Captions for the photographs reflect information provided by the publishers and from our own sources. More information was available for some photographs than for others. While every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright and to ensure correct attribution of photographers’ work, the authors and publisher will be happy to rectify any errors or omissions in further editions.

PHOTOGRAPHER BIOGRAPHIES

Tony Ashby started in press photography as a graded photographer for the West Australian in 1970. He left the paper in 2002 after thirty-two years. Since then, he has worked as a freelance photographer for the Age and AFP, and continues to freelance today.

Barry Baker began his career as a cadet at the West Australian and Daily News newspapers in 1967. He also worked for the Sunday Independent and the Western Mail. He retired in 2009 after forty-two years as a press photographer.

Keith Barlow commenced his career in 1950 as a copy boy with the Daily Telegraph, before being made a cadet two years later. He went on to work for the Australian Women’s Weekly, including as photographic manager, before leaving the industry in 1994.

Barat Ali Batoor began working as a freelance photographer in 2002. His images have been featured in publications such as the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the Afghanistan Times. He is currently a freelance photographer.

Mervyn Bishop started his career as a messenger boy at the ABC in 1963, before becoming a cadet photographer at the Sydney Morning Herald in the same year. He worked for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in between two stints at the SMH, before leaving the paper in 1987 and freelancing. He was the first Aboriginal Australian press photographer.

Ray Blackburn was born in 1926 and commenced his career as a messenger boy and then a cadet at the Age in 1941, becoming a press photographer in 1943. After military service, he returned to the Age, where he performed various roles, including as picture editor from 1969 until his retirement in 1988.

Craig Borrow began as a cadet photographer in 1978 with the Herald and Weekly Times. He then became a graded photographer for the Sun News-Pictorial, moving to the newly created Herald Sun in 1990, where he remained until he left the paper in 2012.

Mike Bowers entered the newspaper industry in the late 1980s, as a photographer for the Canberra Times. He has worked for the Age and as picture editor of the SMH. Currently, he is photographer-at-large for the Guardian Australia and presents a segment on newspaper images for ABC Television’s Insiders.

Nigel Brennan started working as a staff press photographer for the Bundaberg News-Mail in 2007, before transitioning to freelance photography the following year. In August 2008, he was kidnapped by Islamist insurgents while reporting in Somalia, and held hostage for fifteen months. He has worked as a consultant and author since his release in 2009.

Lloyd Brown began his career in newspaper photography after doing work experience at the Melbourne Herald in 1937, when he was sixteen. He spent forty-seven years at the Herald and Weekly Times, retiring in 1986 after a ten-year stint as photographic manager at the Sun News-Pictorial.

Peter Bull, the son of Dennis Bull and grandson of Hugh Bull, started as a copy boy at the Melbourne Sun in 1972. He then worked for the Australian’s Melbourne bureau. He completed his cadetship at News Limited, where he spent sixteen years before moving to Queensland. He worked for Fairfax on a freelance casual basis before joining the Courier-Mail, where he remained for eighteen years before taking a redundancy in 2013.

Verity Chambers began a cadetship with the Daily Mirror in 1986. Throughout her career, she worked for titles such as the Daily Telegraph and the Australian, as well as freelancing for agencies including Reuters and AFP. She left the industry in 2013, having most recently worked for the SMH.

Andrew Chapman commenced his career with the Melbourne Times in 1978. He also worked for Syme Community Newspapers before becoming a freelance photographer in 1985, which remains his current occupation.

Bryan Charlton began his career with the Adelaide Advertiser in 1967 as a cadet. After twenty years at the Advertiser, he worked for the Age in their Adelaide bureau, where he remained for seventeen and a half years until he retired.

Lukas Coch started in press photography in the early 2000s, when he was based in Chile as a freelance for Reuters. He moved to Australia in 2009 and became a staff photographer at AAP in 2012, where he continues to work for the Canberra bureau.

David Dare Parker left Australia to work as a freelance photographer in 1984. He has photographed for many national and international publications around the world, including Le Monde, Stern, L’Express, Focus, Australian Geographic, the Bulletin, the New York Times and Time Australia. During April and May 2003, he was the Official War Photographer for the Australian War Memorial during Operation Falconer in the Middle East.

Stephen Dupont began his career in news photography as a freelance for publications such as the Australian and the Good Weekend in the late 1980s. After moving to London in 1992, he returned to Australia and continues to work as a freelance photographer, specialising in war and conflict.

Kate Geraghty started working in news photography as a cadet for the Border Mail in Albury–Wodonga in 1997. She joined the SMH in 2001, where she remains as a photojournalist.

Yvette Grady became Australia’s first female full-time staff cadet press photographer when she joined the Australian in 1965. She left the paper in 1970 to work in Melbourne and London, where she hosted a primetime television show, and later Los Angeles, where she wrote and produced for news and entertainment television.

Lorrie Graham became the first female photographic cadet at the SMH in 1975. She photographed for the Sun and Observer newspapers in London, before returning to Australia to work for the National Times. She is currently a freelance photographer.

Steve Grove started out as a copy boy for the Daily Mirror in 1971 before transitioning to a photographic cadetship with the paper in 1973. In 1992, Grove became picture editor at the Daily Telegraph, before retiring as national photographic manager for News Corporation in 2014, after forty-three years in the industry.

Leigh Henningham started out as a copy boy at the Herald and Weekly Times in 1977, before commencing a cadetship at the Herald in 1978. After moving to the Sunday Age in 1990, Henningham stepped into the role of picture editor at the Age in 1997, and this remains his current position.

Phil Hillyard entered the newspaper industry as a copy boy for the Adelaide News in 1988, before transitioning to a photographic cadetship in 1989. He worked for the Australian and the Adelaide Advertiser before moving in 1998 to the Daily Telegraph, where he is currently a sports photographer.

Bruce Howard joined the Herald as a messenger boy, before beginning work as a darkroom assistant in 1951. He retired fifty years later as a press photographer, pictorial manager and cadet counsellor at the Herald Sun in 2001.

Clive Hyde began his career as a cadet at the Herald and Weekly Times in 1962, becoming a Herald photographer four years later. He moved to Darwin in 1978 to work for the Darwin Star, before moving to the NT News in 1981. He retired from the paper in 2009 as picture editor, and currently works as a freelance photographer.

John Ibbs commenced his career in 1969 as a cadet with the Sunday Times. He remained with News Limited throughout his career, serving in picture editor roles and as editorial manager, before retiring from full-time work in 2011.

Julian Kingma entered the newspaper industry as a cadet at the Herald in 1988. He also worked at the Sunday Age before becoming a freelance photographer in 2003.

John Lamb began his career as a messenger boy at the Age in 1954. He held various jobs at the newspaper, as well as doing his cadetship, and became a graded photographer there in 1959. He remained at the Age until he retired in 1997.

Dennis Lingane began his career at the Weekly Post newspaper group in the United Kingdom in 1957. He worked as a photographer in London for the City Magazines group, the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror, and in Australia at the Melbourne Herald. He returned to London and retrained as a journalist, working in the United Kingdom and later Australia on various newspapers and publications as a staff reporter and columnist. He finished his full-time career in 2015 as a freelance journalist.

Bill McAuley started as a cadet photographer with the Age in 1969. He worked in a variety of roles across multiple outlets, including the Daily Telegraph and the Australian. He retired as a senior photographer with the Herald Sun in 2009 after forty years as a press photographer.

Clive Mackinnon started working in press photography in 1947 as a cadet with the Age. He moved to the Sun News-Pictorial in 1969, where he remained until his retirement in 1990, after forty-five years as a newspaper photographer.

Justin McManus entered the newspaper industry as a photographer for Messenger newspapers in Adelaide, before freelancing for publications such as the Guardian and the Independent in the United Kingdom from 2002. Since returning to Australia in 2005, he has been a staff photographer at the Age.

Peter McNamara began working for newspapers as a copy boy for the Daily Mirror in 1964. He became a cadet photographer in 1965, and then worked for a variety of publications, including the Australian and the Daily Sun. He joined the Courier-Mail in 1992, where he remained until his retirement as pictorial graphics manager in 2007.

Russell McPhedran commenced his career as a copy boy at the Sydney Sun in 1952. In 1961 he left to work on the Hong Kong Standard, and from 1962 until 1967, he worked on the London Daily Express. He returned to Australia and worked as a senior photographer for Fairfax until 1986, when he was appointed to open the photo bureau in Australia for AAP, where he remained until his retirement in 2004.

Guy Magowan began his career at the West Australian in 1970. He worked for the paper and its stable mate, the Daily News, until his retirement in 2012 after forty-three years in the industry. He occasionally still works as a freelance photographer.

Andrew Meares began his career in 1991 at the SMH as a cadet photographer. He has remained at the paper throughout his career and is currently chief photographer for the Fairfax group.

Lyndon Mechielsen started out as a cadet with the NT News in 1984. In 1993 he moved to the Melbourne bureau of the Australian and in 1995 he was appointed News Limited’s Chief Photographer in the Canberra press gallery. Mechielsen was picture editor of the Australian in Sydney from 1997 until 2001. He was the Brisbane bureau chief of the Australian and is currently a staff photographer in the Brisbane bureau of the newspaper.

Karleen Minney began her career as a press photographer in the late 1990s with the Advocate in Tasmania. In 2007 she moved to the Canberra Times, where she is currently the photographic editor.

Nick Moir started as a copy boy and then became a staff photographer at the SMH in 1993. He continues to work as a press photographer at the Herald, specialising in weather events.

Barry Norman began his career as a copy boy with the Daily Telegraph in 1952, before becoming a cadet photographer six months later. He worked for several publications, including a stint as picture editor for the Australian, and remained at News Limited until 1991.

Renee Nowytarger entered press photography as a cadet for the Manly Daily in 1993. She began working for the Australian in 1999, where she remains a staff photographer.

Colleen Petch had her start in the newspaper industry as a darkroom technician for the Canberra Times in 1992. She moved to the Herald Sun in 1996, where she currently works as a sports photographer. Her images also appear in newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph and the Courier-Mail.

Terry Phelan began his career as a mail boy at Woman’s Day in 1952, before going onto a photographic cadetship at the Herald and Weekly Times. After forty years as a photographer with the Sun News-Pictorial, Phelan left the paper in 1993 to work as a freelance photographer, which he did for the next fourteen years.

Alan Porritt started working as a press photographer at the Australian Women’s Weekly in 1976. He went on to work for the Daily Telegraph before moving to the AAP in 2000. He retired in 2014 after thirty-eight years as a press photographer.

Bruce Postle first worked in the composing room at the Courier-Mail in 1956. In 1958 he became a press photographer with Queensland Country Life, but returned to the Courier-Mail in 1963. In 1969 he moved to the Age, where he stayed as a staff photographer until 1996, when he transitioned into freelance work.

Gary Ramage entered press photography in 2004 with a placement at the Daily Telegraph, after working for twenty years as a photographer in the Australian Defence Force. He is currently the chief photographer at News Corporation.

Ray Sizer started out as a casual photographer with the Shepparton News in 1979, and began his cadetship at the paper in 1982. In 1985, he was made chief photographer and pictorial manager, which remains his current position.

Jason South began his career in 1988 with the Sunday News in Auckland, New Zealand, before taking up a cadetship with the Waikato Times. He also worked for the Townsville Bulletin before joining the Age in 1995, where he currently works.

Penny Stephens had her first experience with the newspaper industry as a work experience student with the Age in 1988. After a period of study, she worked for the Bayside Times, and later became a staff photographer for the Age, where she has been since 1995.

Rick Stevens began his career as a copy boy at the SMH in 1961. In 1963, he took up a position as a photographer at the SMH, and has worked as a freelance photographer since leaving the paper in 2004.

Graeme Tidy had his start in the newspaper industry in 1970 as a cadet on the Adelaide Advertiser. He moved to Canberra in 1989 to join the Canberra Times, where he continues to work as a press photographer.

Darren Tindale commenced his cadetship in 1983 with Syme Community Newspapers. In 1988 he moved to the Sun News-Pictorial, remaining there through its merger into the Herald Sun. Tindale left the Sunday Herald Sun in 2012 after a stint as picture editor and is now a freelance photographer.

Jay Town began his career as a copy boy with Standard newspapers in 1981. In the following year he started a cadetship at Leader Newspapers and went to the West Australian in 1984. He returned to Melbourne in 1986 and worked at the Sun-News Pictorial. He is currently a photographer for both the Herald Sun and Sunday Herald Sun.

Neville Waller began his career as a copy boy with the Daily Telegraph and undertook a cadetship with the paper in 1960. He also worked for the Bulletin and Australian Women’s Weekly magazines, and spent twelve years as a photographic manager at Australian Consolidated Press, before leaving in 2000.

Grant Wells entered the newspaper industry in 1982 as a darkroom assistant with the Advocate newspaper in Tasmania. He remained at the Advocate until 2016, attaining the position of chief photographer. He is now working freelance on the north-west coast of Tasmania.

Susan Windmiller began a photographic cadetship with the SMH in 1981. She has worked freelance in Germany and had stints at the Australian and Herald Sun. In 1988 she became a photographer at Leader newspapers, serving in the role of chief photographer for nineteen years until 2015. She is now working freelance.

Angela Wylie started out as a darkroom technician at the Age in 1989 and transferred into a cadetship the following year. She spent three years at Fairfax’s Brisbane bureau in the 1990s before returning to the Age’s Melbourne office, where she remained until 2014, when she left the industry.

CHAPTER 1

PRESS PHOTOGRAPHY IN AUSTRALIA, 1880–2015

SALLY YOUNG

IN JUNE 1880, one of the biggest news stories in Australian history broke at Glenrowan, Victoria. After years of eluding the police, Ned Kelly and his gang staged a final confrontation at the Glenrowan Inn. Kelly was shot and arrested, while the other members of his gang were shot dead by police or died in the fire that burnt through the hotel after police tried to smoke them out. Sepia photographs of the bodies and burnt-out hotel were taken by several photographers, including JW Lindt, Oswald Thomas Madeley and John Bray. But none of these photographers were newspaper staff—they were a mix of studio, amateur and freelance photographers, some commissioned by the police. While the capture of the Kelly gang was a momentous story for newspapers, no photographs were included in their dramatic reports because it was still technically too difficult for a newspaper to print a photograph onto a newspaper page.

The only newspapers to record the event visually were illustrated newspapers, which relied upon engravers and woodblock illustration. While one ‘enterprising Melbourne newspaper’ employed commercial photographer Lindt to take photographs, these were only used as a guide for the paper’s woodcut artists.¹ A sketch artist also rushed in person to Glenrowan to record the event for an illustrated newspaper, and he is visible in one of Lindt’s photographs of the body of Kelly gang member Joe Byrne. In the foreground at left, wearing a bowler hat, is the English artist Julian Ashton, who worked for David Syme’s Illustrated Australian News.² Ashton can be seen with his sketchbook tucked under his arm, having just completed a sketch while sitting on the cold cement floor of a police cell using the light of a candle. Afterwards, the photographers persuaded the police to hang Byrne’s body on a pulley outside so they could photograph it.³ It took four days for Ashton’s sketch to be published, in the 3 July edition of Illustrated Australian News, while woodblock illustrations based on photographs of the hanging body appeared in several newspapers and journals, including the Bulletin, on 10 July.⁴

1.1 Joe Byrne’s body outside Benalla Police Station, sepia photograph by JW Lindt, 29 June 1880 (State Library Victoria Pictures Collection).

Eight years later, newspapers were in a much better position to include photographs after the development of the half-tone technique. Half-tone allowed engravers to incorporate a photograph into the rest of the text by setting and reproducing it on the same printing plate in a format that used different sized dots. This was a new and expensive process and the results were not always good. Nonetheless, as historian Kate Evans notes, it was a ‘great revolution in newspaper illustrating’ because, previously, newspapers had only been able to ‘tip in’ individual photographic pages ‘as exotic or artistic pages on separate glossy paper’. The new technique, Evans argues, ‘changed the relationship of the photograph to written text, and absorbed it into the everyday material of the paper’.⁵ It also, as veteran photographer Bruce Howard explains, heralded the birth of two new groups of workers within the newspaper industry: the photoengraving process department and press photographers.⁶

Using the new method, a photograph of a railway accident at Young, New South Wales, was published in 1888 by John Fairfax & Sons’ weekly newspaper the Sydney Mail. This has been widely claimed to be the first photograph to appear in an Australian newspaper.⁷ The photograph was taken by George Berlin, a travelling commercial photographer. Berlin had a distinctive way of ensuring he was given credit for the photograph—he painted his name on the steam engine of the train! This desire for attribution and recognition was an issue for photographers for the next hundred years as they were not routinely given by-line credits for their photographs until the 1980s.

Despite its advantages, the half-tone process was expensive and cumbersome for daily press deadlines. More than a decade after it was introduced, most papers still only published photographs occasionally, but continued using them as a basis for drawings that appeared in the paper.⁸ Mass-circulation newspapers used rotary presses, which, at first, were not as effective at printing half-tone as the offset printers used by the major illustrated magazines. This was also a discouraging factor.⁹

That photographs were not immediately taken up with enthusiasm was not only about practical, technical or economic factors. It was also about attitudes towards images. Although the Sydney Mail had begun as a weekly review edition of the Sydney Morning Herald for country readers, it had developed into a high-quality magazine with a reputation for its illustrations. By 1888, it had a seventeen-year tradition of using illustrations, but when it published the train accident photograph, it placed it in an incongruous manner, out of context and eleven pages away from the news story of the event, demonstrating an initial uncertainty about how to use ‘real pictures’ to illustrate news.

1.2 Railway accident at Young, photograph by George Berlin, 15 September 1888. The Sydney Mail, page 558 (National Library of Australia).

The papers ‘of record’, the broadsheet newspapers, were not merely unsure about photography but resistant. Evans documents how broadsheets ‘defined themselves against’ the populist appeal of photographs, associating them with ‘low-brow’, emotional news coverage.¹⁰ The Sydney Mail’s parent newspaper, the SMH, did not publish a photograph until twenty years after the Sydney Mail, replicating a trend also apparent in the United States in this era, whereby daily newspapers used a weekly magazine-type supplement to exploit the growing popularity of photography while insulating their primary product ‘from being downgraded by the photograph’.¹¹

By contrast, the enthusiasm of the illustrated and tabloid-style press was reflected in their employment of the first press photographers. James HF Eastman began working with the Argus’s illustrated weekly magazine, the Australasian, in 1895 and spent more than forty years as a press photographer with the Australasian/Argus before he died while taking photographs at the Ford factory in