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| Lade Vale Tennis Club circa 1900. Photo taken by Augustus Jones, restored by Ray McJannett (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5) |
From GDHS Secretary Rosemary Spiller: Augustus Jones, local photographer in the 1890s and 1900s. Ray McJannett is recovering his photos from a collection of glass negatives, but they were jumbled in their boxes, so many are now not identified, such as the Golden Wedding from 1901. Families in Jerrawa and Lade Vale have photos of their relatives and their farms, with the words "Gus Jones Photographer" printed on the card frame. We know Gus shot large groups of people and Ray believes people in Gunning will also have such photos in their family albums. All are welcome to attend Ray's presentation on this important local photographer and on how to look after their old photos, at the History Society's end of year meeting on Saturday, 3 December 2016, at the Foley Centre, Gunning, at 2.30 pm.
Guest Blogger Ray McJannett: The Photography of Augustus Jones
It's very rare that a 120 year old collection of local glass plate negatives should suddenly appear. This amazing collection of early Australian photography belongs to Daphne Hjort of Yass in NSW. The photographer was Daphne's grandfather. The 22 boxes of small glass negatives have been passed down through her family for well over a century. The collection consists of 360 plates, mainly portraits, still in their original boxes. The images were taken by Augustus Jones around the district of Yass in Southern NSW between 1890 and 1912, the year Jones died at the age of forty. None of the plates were broken, but many were damaged from years of poor storage and rough handling.
Looking through a photographers negatives from a world long gone is an experience. This was the first time I had come across such a large private collection of glass negatives attributed to the one known photographer, particularly one with such a local connection. Augustus Jones was a pioneering photographer from Gunning and for about twenty years he focused his lens on the families scattered throughout the local settlements of Jerrawa, Greendale and Lade Vale just outside of Yass. The photographer specialized in location portraiture and he has left us an amazing legacy. It appears Jones had a passion for photographing people. Not only that, it seems he understood the medium reasonably well. In the 1800's, cameras and plates were expensive and photographers such as Jones could not afford to make mistakes. Each exposure was very selective and made to count. Strangely, little is known of the photographer and even less of the people he photographed. The district that Jones roamed around had been well established by 1890. Much of the area had been settled by former English convicts and their families during the 1840s. Many of their descendants still work the farms that were carved out of the bush by these early pioneers. In the background of many of the portraits are glimpses of the sitter’s homes and an insight into who they were and how they lived. The majority of the buildings have slab walls and bark roofs.
Jones kept a record of the people he photographed by writing their details on top of the small boxes containing the negatives. But over the years the glass plates have been shuffled from one box to another making it difficult to identify who these people were. The collection also contains around 100 small black cards with Jones’s name printed on them. It appears the photographer was preparing to produce a series of ‘carte de visite’ photographs, but died before he got to make any prints from his plates. One of the negatives really stands out. It is called the Golden Wedding and was taken 115 years ago. The photographer inscribed the plate by writing the title and date backwards on the emulsion side in black ink. This was done to make the writing appear the right way round when the negative was printed.
In country Australia in the late 1800's having your picture taken was a big event and looking your best was very important. What I love about these images is that everyone is dressed in their Sunday best. Jones didn't have a studio and so travelled to these scattered farms on horseback. The people knew he was coming and dressed for the occasion. This is what these fragile glass plates represent. Portraits of the early settlers from the district of Yass looking their very best for the camera.
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