Design and Art Australia Online

professional photographer and publican, worked in rural Victoria in the early 1860s. His photograph of the Lady Daly , 'an Australian River Steamer’ on the Murray River, formed the basis of an engraving which appeared in the Illustrated London News on 5 December 1863. He travelled from Victoria through New South Wales and up to North Queensland in the late 1860s. Undated photographs taken by 'A. Kipling from Melbourne’ of St John’s Church at Canberra and the Campbells’ nearby Duntroon House (p.c., copies ML) in an album compiled by Sophia Ives Campbell were presumably taken on his journey north. In 1869, when Kipling erected his 'portrait gallery’ (tent) at Clermont, Queensland, he claimed that his 'long connection with first-class houses in Melbourne, has enabled him to secure a very superior lot of chemicals so that a first-class Portrait can be relied on’, but it is not known with whom he was associated. He charged £1 for six cartes-de-visite portraits, £1 5s if vignetted and £1 10s for two people.

Having exhausted the market at Clermont in a week, Kipling moved on to Copperfield. On 16 July 1870 he was at Mackay, advertising his photograph of 'a Monster Alligator measuring 15 feet [4.57 m] in length, on view and for sale at the Gallery’. Later that year he was taking photographs in Sydney (NSW). By 1873, having abandoned photography, he was back at Clermont for a longer stay as proprietor of the Prince of Wales Hotel. In August, however, he announced that his tent studio had been re-erected beside his hotel and he was again taking portraits. Kipling continued as both publican and photographer at Clermont until 1874.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011