Design and Art Australia Online

amateur photographer and scientist, was born in Peterculter, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on 12 December 1821, son of Roderick Smith, a blacksmith, and Margaret, née Shier. He took out degrees in Arts and Medicine at Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1843 and 1844 respectively, then visited Sydney on a health voyage before taking up the position of lecturer in chemistry and agriculture at Marischal College. He returned to New South Wales in 1852 as foundation professor of chemistry and experimental philosophy (physics) at the University of Sydney.

Soon after his arrival Professor Smith became interested in the question of a fresh water supply for Sydney and was appointed chairman of the New South Wales Water Board. The position involved travelling to remote parts of the state and on these occasions he photographed the bush, townships and gold-diggings. The bulk of his photographs, most of which were taken between 1854 and 1862, however, are portraits, family groups, picnic scenes, geological subjects, views of Sydney Harbour, some Tasmanian scenes and the construction of Sydney University. The people whom John Smith mainly photographed were members of the university, and wealthy Sydney families such as the Wrights of Drummoyne.

Unlike most stiffly posed studio portraits of the time, Smith made a conscious attempt to relate people to their environment, photographing them in their gardens, in front of their houses, on their verandahs and in their conservatories. Sitters are carefully arranged in various poses and in conversational groupings. Some of his interior photographs are deliberate exercises in creating images of feminine beauty, such as a woman in a drawing-room surrounded by classical statues or a close-up of three identically dressed girls arranged in a Renaissance pyramid, the front one holding a rose. Such interior photographs were rare in the 1850s as exposures lasting up to several minutes were required. These intimate glimpses of upper middle-class aspirations contrast markedly with his Sydney University construction series where Smith often appears in the photographs himself, clearly timing the exposure.

John Smith was acquainted with other gentlemen amateur photographers, such as William Stanley Jevons , through the Philosophical Society of New South Wales. At a meeting in 1858 several members, including Smith, displayed their photographs. Most of his were stereo pairs, probably made primarily for the enjoyment of his immediate circle rather than for public exhibition. He mainly used the wet-plate photographic process, but he also experimented with the early dry-plate process invented by Dr Hill Norris. Examples of both are in the John Smith collection of original negatives at the University of Sydney Archives, the most comprehensive surviving collection of his work.

Smith had wide public interests. On the Board of the Council of Education he was a keen promoter of public elementary education. In the 1870s he supported the admission of women into Sydney University and introduced a course on electricity specifically for women. He became a member of the Legislative Assembly in 1871. He made trips to the United States and Britain via the Middle East in the 1860s and 1870s but does not appear to have taken any photographs on these occasions; however, he recorded meeting an officer from the Chinese Wars who had photographed the Taku forts 'immediately after being stormed by the British – the ground strewn with dead and mangled bodies’. His account of these journeys, Wayfaring Notes , was published privately. In later life Smith developed an interest in theosophy. He died of phthisis (tuberculosis) at Sydney on 12 October 1885 and was buried in the Presbyterian section of Waverley Cemetery, survived by his wife Mary (Minnie), née Macleod, whom he had married on leave in England on 11 June 1872, and their adopted daughter, Nora.

Writers:

Willis, Anne-Marie

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011