Design and Art Australia Online

Otto Walter Anton Orthman was born in Berlin, Germany in 1899 and migrated to Australia with his family in 1905 where he was educated at the Junction Part State School, Brisbane. His mother encouraged musicianship in her children and Walter was taught to play the violin. He started his working career in Southport where in 1918 he married Ivy Isabell Swanson and a son, Garth Otto George, was born the same year. The couple worked at Baratira Station, Longreach before returning to Brisbane where he gained employment as a photographer.

The family were established in Cairns by 1927 when Garth was enrolled at the Parramatta State School. By this time Orthman was employed at the well-established Chargois Photographic Studio where he was to remain until his death in 1966. Like his employer, Herbert Chargois, Orthman was a foundation member of the Cairns Art Society 1931 (Kibby, 1984, pg. 53-54) a member of the Cairns Camera Club, and a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. Orthman supplied photos of local interest to newspapers in Queensland’s capital, Brisbane from 1926 and the following year submitted photographs to the Brisbane Courier , which documented the devastation caused by a recent cyclone ( Brisbane Courier , 1927).

Orthman was involved with the Queensland Camera Club from 1929 (perhaps even earlier) when exhibited seven bromoil photos ( Brisbane Courier , 1929). He also contributed to the 1933 display and was awarded a bronze plaque for his contribution to the Queensland Camera Club’s submission to the 'Amateur Photographer and Cinematographer’, in London in 1933. This competition was confined to photographers of the Commonwealth outside Britain ( Brisbane Courier , 1933).

Orthman was a member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and it was through this connection that some of his works were widely exhibited. For instance Ducklings c. 1931 in the Queensland Art Gallery Collection has a series of labels affixed to the back which demonstrates an extensive exhibition history from 1931 to 1934: Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, 1931; Chicago Camera Club, Chicago, 1932; The Camera Club, New York, 1932; Medzinarodna Fotograficka Vystava,Vkosiciach, 1933; South African Salon, August-September 1933; South African Salon, December 1933; Pretoria Photographic Society, 1933; East London Photographic Society, 1933; Bolton, England, 1934 (The labels attached to Autumn Evening c. 1930 (also Queensland Art Gallery Collection) similarly documents a tour to the United States, Poland, South Africa, Belgium and England from 1930 to 1935).

He exhibited watercolours at the Atherton Agricultural Society in 1930 and continued to exhibit paintings in tandem with his photographs. In later years he had and exhibition with Tasman Fehlberg at the David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney (which was opened by Margaret Preston) in September 1952. The lack of comment by the critics of several newspapers is probably an assessment of Orthman’s relative skills when shown in a major art centre. It was reported that southern artists such as Athol Nicholas and Robert Johnson attended Orthman’s classes during visits in the 1950s during the winter months. Orthman was also involved in teaching photography in adult education classes.

He exhibited with the Royal Queensland Art Society, Brisbane on only two occasions in 1951 and 1958. Orthman contributed subjects from North Queensland to the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales for 1954, 1956 and 1960 and in the H. C. Richards Memorial Prize for Painting, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane in the years from 1955 to 1959 and in several of the competitions to celebrate Queensland’s centenary in 1959. A posthumous exhibition of his photographic works was held at the Access Gallery, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, in March. 1979. Walter Orthman’s photography had an important position in the Queensland Pictorialist photography movement (he was included in 'Queensland Pictorialist Photography 1920-1950’, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1984) and made a significant contribution to the art scene in Far North Queensland.

Writers:

Cooke, Glenn R

Date written:

2010

Last updated:

2011