A few weeks back, I introduced a list of Shepparton photographers through the ages and featured the first four shown here.
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Today, I will continue with the next four on the list.
Hormidgee and Gye: 1879/1880
Harry Vanheems: 1880-1892
Joseph Youdale: c1886
A. F. Hunt: c1892
George Metcalf: c1894-1896
J. D. Peirce: 1880-c1907
Saville Whiting: c1899
Miss M. L. Smith: 1900-1902
Norm ‘Col’ Colliver: c1902-1958
Percy Hume: 1906-1918 postcards
Louis James Michel: 1911-1916
Loyd Telfer: 1940s-1975
Sunny Photos: c1945-c1950
Arnold Gough: 1950s-1970s
Trevor Phillips: 1978-current
Simon Greig: 1980s-2020s
Dale and Stuart Wright: 1970s-current
George Metcalf partnered with A. F. Hunt in 1893 until they decided to dissolve the business partnership.
From then on, Mr Metcalf put the business in his name using the catchphrase — ‘Babies taken quicker than winking’.
He continued his photography business into early 1896.
John Duncan Peirce was born in England and left for Melbourne, Australia, in 1884.
His trade at this time was as a civic and electrical engineer and, in 1893, he went to Broken Hill as a professional photographer to document the mines.
From 1888 to 1889, he travelled to Victoria to take photos of big trees, with eight of these photos published in his book The Giant Trees of Victoria. See the photo of the tree called The Baron.
This project may have inspired his photo titled, Civilisation in the Bush (as shown), which he took of the swaggie living in a tree in the Shepparton district near the Goulburn River.
In c1895, Mr Peirce partnered with Thomas Cleary and John Pearson in Echuca to set up a photographic studio.
“Messrs. Cleary, Pearson, and Peirce have organised their country business with the aim of providing those residing outside the major business hubs with top-notch, artistic photographic services. Their quality matches, and their prices rival the best available in Melbourne or Sydney. The Echuca studio of the firm is located on Heygarth St, opposite the Palace Hotel. They also maintain permanent studios in Benalla, Shepparton and Rochester. Furthermore, they are in the process of establishing branches in every sizeable town between here and Albury. Mr Cleary oversees the main studio in Benalla as well as its branches. Mr Pearson is in charge of the Shepparton studio, workrooms, and branches. Mr Peirce, who recently joined the Echuca team, serves as the resident partner in this location. With extensive experience as a photographer, Mr Peirce received training in the Old World techniques. The quality of the photographs produced in this establishment speaks for itself.” (Riverine Herald)
This partnership ended in 1896 and, a year later, Mr Peirce set up a business in his own name on the corner of Wyndham and Fryers Sts.
For the next six years, he was a very successful photographer with many commissions for weddings, sporting groups, etc and many photos taken around the district.
By 1902, Norman “Col” Colliver had set up his Toska Studio, which must have greatly impacted his business as he resorted to turning his adverts in the Shepparton Advertiser upside down to get people to notice his business.
It must not have worked too well as he ended up working for Mr Colliver at the Toska Studio in 1905 for the next few years.
Sometime in the 1930s, he relocated back to England and died in 1943 when he was 85.
Another competitor of Mr Peirce was the Silver Art Studio in Wyndham St, which Saville Whiting managed in December 1899.
The Shepparton branch was one of many around Victoria and NSW.
Mr Saville was the head operator at Johnstone, O’Shannessy & Co Photographers in Melbourne for 16 years.
Before coming to Shepparton, he was dismissed from the firm in 1996 due to drunkenness.
One of the staff said he was an excellent workman but was a “drunken sot”.
Also, at this time, his wife took him to court to seek a divorce due to his ongoing drunkenness.
The business only advertised for a couple of months in the local paper, so who knows whether the “demon drink” got the better of him again.
The only female photographer on the list was Miss M. L. Smith, who set up a studio in Wyndham St in 1900.
In 1901, she shifted her studio to a shop near A.R. Long’s Newsagency near the Queen’s Gardens.
It appears she closed her business sometime in the early months of 1902 and in May of that year, Mr Colliver opened his Toska Studio in the same building.
More about Mr Colliver and his Toska Studio in a few weeks with Percy Hume and Louis James Michel.
•Geoff Allemand is an amateur photographer and Lost Shepparton Facebook
Pics of the past columnist