Norman C Deck

(Australia 29 May 1882–31 Aug 1980)

Title

What is it? Taieri Beach (New Zealand)

Year

1909

Media category

Photograph

Materials used

gelatin silver photograph

Dimensions

29.4 x 22.7cm image/sheet; 40.4 x 30.9cm board

Signature & date

Not signed. Dated l.l. board, pencil and c. verso board, ink "...1909".

Credit

Gift of the artist 1977

Accession number

179.1977

Location

Not on display

Further information

One reviewer thought that Norman Deck’s landscapes were ‘the very essence of Arcadianism’.1 It is arguable whether his imaginative view of the landscape was Arcadian. Living simply in the Pacific, he would return to Australia and lament the devastation wrought on the environment by ‘progress’. It was this love of the unspoilt and untamed which was the source of his attachment to New Zealand. He had spent six months there as a boy and made extended trips around both islands in 1909, 1911 and 1921, photographing extensively. He thought the photographs he took from McKinnon Pass to Milford Sound were some of his finest. Many of Deck’s non-landscape subjects were depictions of figures on the beach. Although he had painterly models for this work, such as William Margetson’s popular ‘The sea hath its pearls’ 1897 in the collection of the AGNSW, the simplicity with which he handles a potentially contrived subject, the quality of light and his straightforward photographic approach make this one of his most distinctive and memorable images.

1. 1911, ‘Photographic Society of NSW exhibition: a critical survey’, Harrington’s Photographic Journal, 22 May p 141

Bibliography (5)

7079 (Editor), Photography: Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection, 2007, 81 (illus.).

Gael Newton (Australia), Australian Pictorial Photography, Melbourne, 1979, 18. cat.no. 35

Sandra Byron (Australia) (Author), Fine and Mostly Sunny: Photographs from the collection, Sydney, 1991. cat.no. 13

Wayne Tunnicliffe (New Zealand; Australia) (Author), Bridled Passions, Sydney, 1996. no catalogue numbers

Natasha Bullock (Australia) (Curator), Soft Shadows and Sharp Lines: Australian photography from Cazneaux to Dupain, Domain, 2002. no catalogue numbers

Exhibition history (6)

Australian Pictorial Photography, S.H. Ervin Gallery, 12 Jun 1979–08 Jul 1979.

Australian Pictorial Photography, The Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, 08 Aug 1979–31 Aug 1979.

Australian Pictorial Photography, Art Gallery of South Australia, 01 Dec 1979–30 Jan 1980.

Fine and mostly sunny: photographs from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 28 Sep 1991–01 Dec 1991.

Bridled Passions, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 23 Nov 1996–02 Feb 1997.

Soft Shadows and Sharp Lines: Australian photography from Cazneaux to Dupain, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 30 Sep 2002–17 Nov 2002.