Photograph, Anglo-Australasian Photographic Company, Scene Near the Yarra Flats, c. 1876

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.
Reference: Jack Cato, 'Caire, Nicholas John (1837–1918)', Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Significance

An original, rare photograph from the series '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

Views of Victoria (General Series) No.21 / ‘Scene near the Yarra Flats’ / Albumen silver photograph mounted on board.

Inscriptions & markings

Inscription on reverse:
‘The scenery in the vicinity of the Yarra Flats is of a very varied character. In some places the River winds its way through flat open country, with scarcely a shrub on its banks; and in others the scenery is of the wildest description. The stream being impeded in its course by fallen timber, is not so rapid here as at other places. The present illustration is a characteristic one of the above place.’

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