Design and Art Australia Online

John Cyril (Jack) Cato (1889-1971), photographer, was born on 4 April 1889 at Launceston, Tasmania, son of Albert Cox Cato, salesman, and his wife Caroline Louise, née Morgan.

Early Life
At the age of 12 years he did an apprenticeship, and studied arts in night school. His father arranged for him to have lessons from a friend who was a metallurgist at Queenstown, Tasmania, where he learnt the properties of metals in photography. John Watt Beattie, a Scottish landscape photographer and also the son of a photographer, introduced young Jack to the medium in 1896. From 1901 Cato worked under Percy Whitelaw and John Andrew, both local portrait photographers. He was further trained by Lucien Dechaineux at Launceston Technical School.

Career
In 1906, aged 17, Cato joined Beattie in his Hobart premises and set up his own studio. Later he applied to be official photographer to (Sir) Douglas Mawson’s 1911 Australasian Antarctic Expedition. However, Mawson passed up he and Frank Mallard in favour of Frank Hurley [Murphy, Shane & Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962 (2000). Shackleton’s photographer: the annotated diaries of Frank Hurley, expedition photographer, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-17 : a book (2nd electronic ed). Shane Murphy, Scottsdale, AZ]. Cato travelled that year in Europe finding work with photographers in London, among them Claude Harris and H. Walter Barnett, the fashionable society and vice-regal portraitist. Having contracted tuberculosis and, seeking the relief of a warm climate, Cato left England in 1914 for six years working on expedition in South Africa. The anthropological photography earned him a fellowship (1917) of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.

In 1920 Cato returned, ill, to Tasmania, where he operated his own portrait-studio in Hobart, and there married Mary Boote Pearce (d.1970) on 24 December 1921. In 1927 they moved to Melbourne. With the patronage of Dame Nellie Melba [DAME NELLIE MELBA OPENS SHOW. (1927, October 7). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 13.], whom he had met in London, and through her introductions to society and to theatrical circles, he set up as a social portraitist. He put his pictorial style, natural gregariousness, love of theatre and technical knowledge to effect in becoming a leader of the trade in Melbourne for two decades. [“He was also a singer, he loved the stage. I think that was more behind Jack Cato than anything: he was a performer, he loved performing, during the African years he was a member of a Pierrot troupe.”[Narkiewicz, Ewa (2000). Jack Cato’s Melbourne: an interview with John Cato. In La Trobe Journal. (65), 17-27.][“JACK CATO, photographer and raconteur, who, not long ago, produced a most readable book of reminiscences…” Clive Turnbull, in Portrait of A City. (1949, October 15). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 10.]

His photographs were frequently published in The Australian Womens Weekly, The Argus,, Table Talk, The Hobart Mercury, The Australasian, He maintained links with professional associations and amateur clubs through occasional exhibitions of his best work [Arthur Streeton reviews “an exhibition of photographs by Mr. Jack Cato opened at the Athenaeum Gallery bv the Prime  Minister (Mr. Lyons)”; ART PHOTOGRAPHS. (1932, May 31). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 8.] , and was senior vice-president (1938) and a life member of the Professional Photographers’ Association.

Cato retired from his Melbourne studio in 1946 to begin a career as an author. In addition to a large number of articles in photographic, philatelic and other magazines, as well as serving as chronicler for the Savage Club, he published an autobiography, I Can Take It (1947), and a pictorial documentary, Melbourne (1949)[reviewed by Clive Turnbull, in Portrait of A City. (1949, October 15). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 10.].

Cato’s The Story of the Camera in Australia (1955) is acknowledged [“It is unlikely that new research will alter substantially the outlines of the story which Cato set down, although these might be filled in by pursuing more material outside the Sydney-Melbourne axis.” Humphrey McQueen in THE STORY BEHIND THE LENS. (1977, November 5). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995), p. 12.] as the first Australian national history of the medium, though it is more populist than academic. A keen stamp-collector from childhood (also 1935 president of the Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria) he was able to sell his stamps for about £10,000 in 1954 to finance six years of research for this book. He used the La Trobe Library picture and newspaper collections in Melbourne [Narkiewicz, Ewa (2000). Jack Cato’s Melbourne: an interview with John Cato. In La Trobe Journal. (65), 17-27.], making only one visit to Sydney and Canberra institutions. Cato also relied on written accounts such as the 100 or so letters from Harold Cazneaux, as well as corresponding with Keast Burke in Sydney, a photography historian and campaigner for the recognition of photography as a historical resource and was engaged in 1964 as consultant to the collections at the Australian National Library.

From 1960-63 Cato was photography columnist for the Age.

He died on 14 August 1971 at Sandringham, survived by his son, photographer John Cato and daughter.

A collection of his photographs is held by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

References

Cato, Jack & Institute of Australian Photography (2009). Charles Nettleton (3rd ed). Institute of Australian Photography, [Melbourne]
Cato, J. (1971) Philately from Australia, Sept 1971
Cato, Jack (1963). Some early Australian Commonwealth postage stamp essays. Review Pubs, Dubbo, N.S.W
Cato, Jack (1955). The story of the camera in Australia. Georgian House, Melbourne
Cato, Jack (1949). Melbourne. Georgian House, Melbourne
Cato, Jack (1947). I can take it : the autobiography of a photographer. Georgian House, MelbourneDow, D. M. (1947) Melbourne Savages (Melb)
Cosier, I. (1980) Jack Cato (M.A. prelim thesis, University of Melbourne).
Ennis, Helen & National Library of Australia & National Portrait Gallery (Australia) (1996). The reflecting eye : portraits of Australian visual artists. National Library of Australia, [Canberra]
Narkiewicz, Ewa (2000). Jack Cato’s Melbourne: an interview with John Cato. In La Trobe Journal. (65), 17-27.
Newton, G. (1980) Silver and Grey (Syd,)
Newton, G. (1993 ) ’Cato, John Cyril (Jack) (1889–1971)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 13, (MUP).
Professional Photography in Australia, 23, no 5, Aug-Sept 1971Photofile, 4, no 1, Autumn 1986
The Great Lindt; a compilation based on research by Jack Cato, R. J. Barcham and Keast Burke. (1955-10-01). In Image. 4 (7), 54(1).

Writers:

Staff Writer
James McArdle

Date written:

1999

Last updated:

2014