Harold Cazneaux / Australia  NSW  1878–1953 / Mountain of iron 1935 / Bromoil transfer photograph / 32.3 x 25.6cm / Purchased 1984 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Harold Cazneaux
Mountain of iron 1935

Not Currently on Display

Harold Cazneaux was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia with his family in the 1890s, settling in Adelaide. His father was a photographer, and Cazneaux began working in his father’s studio while attending evening classes at the School of Design, Painting and Technical Arts.

Cazneaux developed a passion for photography as a young man, after being inspired by an exhibition of ‘pictorial movement’ photographs from England. The pictorialist movement regarded photography as a form of high art, closely linked to painting. Cazneaux experimented with soft focus images by manipulating negatives and prints, and he became an expert in bromoil transfer printing.

In 1904, he relocated to Sydney, where he began displaying his work in solo exhibitions. He enjoyed early success both locally and internationally, and he was recognised as a pioneer of the pictorial movement. Wanting to break from overseas trends, Cazneaux was particularly interested in photography that captured the Australian qualities of sunlight, and his popular commercial work sparked new trends in Australian photography.