Historical information

Nicholas Caire was born on Guernsey in the Channel Islands in 1837. He arrived in Adelaide with his parents in about 1860. In 1867, following photographic journeys in Gippsland, he opened a studio in Adelaide. From 1870 to 1876 he lived and worked in Talbot in Central Victoria. In 1876 he purchased T. F. Chuck's studios in the Royal Arcade Melbourne. In 1885, following the introduction of dry plate photography, he began a series of landscape series, which were commercially successful. As a photographer, he travelled extensively through Victoria, photographing places few of his contemporaries had previously seen. He died in 1918.

Significance

'Views of Victoria: General Series' by the photographer, Nicholas Caire (1837-1918). The series of 60 photographs that comprise the series was issued c. 1876 and reinforced a neo-Romantic view of the Australian landscape to which a growing nationalist movement would respond. Nicholas Caire was active as a photographer in Australia from 1858 until his death in 1918. His vision of the Australian bush and pioneer life had a counterpart in the works of Henry Lawson and other nationalist poets, authors and painters.

Physical description

Part collection (56/60) of Nicholas Caire's 'Views of Victoria General Series' (1870s), including landscape photographs mounted and inscribed by the photographer on card. The accession records of the Society record that they were transferred by Stewart West in 1984. This wording suggests that he may have been preserving the series for the Society in the absence of a (then) permanent home. It has been suggested that they may have once formed part of the Dorothy Rogers Collection, donated by her estate in 1974. The series includes one duplicate (No.14) and is missing Nos. 15, 36, 43, 45, and 48.

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