James H. E. Brown is placed in Adelaide in March of 1873, where he exhibited dissolving views at the Adelaide Town Hall. The collection of works, which Melbourne artist James Moore had coloured, had previously shown in Melbourne’s ‘Inter-Colonial Exhibition’ earlier that same year. The views depicted well known images of Gustav Dore’s ‘The Life of Christ’ and were glass transparencies, projected with oxy-hydrogen limelight. Following the Adelaide Town Hall exhibition, the views were shown, again in projected format, to inmates at the Adelaide Hospital for the Insane.
In February 1874, James H. E. Brown moved to Clare, where he advertised his photographic services in the ‘Northern Argus’. He described himself as a ‘landscape and portrait photographer and colourist from Victoria’ and that he was able to photograph ‘gentlemen’s houses, invalids and family groups’. Published in his advertisement were a number of testimonials, provided by several Melbourne-based businesses and individuals, including portrait photographers O’Shannessy & Co., portrait painters J. Tanner Esq., Jas. Moore, and Miss Noble, and landscape photographers W.I. & F.C. Burman.
During December 1874, astronomers based at Clare witnessed the transit of Venus. Brown was also there to photograph the transit, which he did so in its different phases. Using exposures of approximately one-quarter of a second, Brown produced a set of images that were labelled ‘very distinct’.
Brown published an album titled ‘Leporello’, which illustrated scenes of Clare including its buildings and some of its people. By March 1875, Brown had left Clare, and his business had been taken by Walter Rowe.
- Writers:
-
Nerina_Dunt
- Date written:
- 2013
- Last updated:
- 2013
