Joshua Anson was a photographer, one of the Anson Brothers photographic firm in Hobart with Henry Joseph Anson and Richard Edwin Anson. In a court case in 1877 Joshua Anson was indited for theft of photographic goods from his employer, H.H. Baily of Hobart and gaoled for two years. He resumed his career, apparently unaffected by his incarceration, upon release and went on to win a number of awards