H. B. Ballard is recorded to have practiced as a professional photographer in three states including Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. Advertisements for his services appeared in Border Watch and South Eastern Star, during a visit he made to Mount Gambier in 1880. He was a portrait photographer who claimed to be equipped with the ‘latest scientific appliances’ and according to the nineteenth century advertisements, Ballard had erected a studio in which he was able to photograph his sitters. He is also understood to have constructed a mobile darkroom situated atop a wooden handcart that allowed him to work with wet-plate glass negatives that he sensitised and developed. A c.1880 image depicts Ballard’s handcart adjacent a building bearing the name F.T. McFarlane. The building is believed to be that of stationer F.T. McFarlane, who traded at Penola in South Australia’s south-east.
This photographer may be connected with Benjamin Ballard.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2013
