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Details
- Date
- 1877-1882
- Media category
- Photograph
- Materials used
- carte de visite
- Dimensions
- 7.3 x 5.3 cm oval image; 9.4 x 5.8 cm sheet; 10.3 x 6.3 cm mount card
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 2014
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 259.2014
- Copyright
- Artist information
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William Bear
Works in the collection
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About
William Bear was a professional photographer based in Melbourne. Born in London, he was working in the studio of William Insull Burman, Melbourne in the 1860s and married Burman’s daughter, Emily Jane, in 1868. Bear operated the Burman’s photographic studios and may have opened his own firm in Geelong in the 1880s.
A carte de visite is a stiff card of about 10 x 6.4 cm, with an attached paper photograph, invented in 1854 by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disderi. They were introduced into Australia in 1859 by William Blackwood with albums arriving in 1860, aiding the collection and distribution of multiple cartes. Cartes were usually portraits and were made by the millions worldwide. Multi-lens, or ‘multiplying’ cameras were introduced in the 1860s, which were capable of producing from 2 to 32 images in quick succession, dramatically increasing the number of cartes de visite that could be made from a single photographic plate. They were easily reproduced by making paper contact prints from the glass plates, which were then cut and pasted to card.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 1 exhibition
The photograph and Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 Mar 2015–08 Jun 2015
The photograph and Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 04 Jul 2015–11 Oct 2015