tonyegan

This is a photo of two of my great uncles, a great aunt and two of their cousins taken c. 1939. The backdrop is my great grandfather Mick’s 1925 Buick which appears in many photos from this era. I inherited many of Mick’s family negatives after my grandmother died. They cover a period of roughly 1927 to 1940 and are centred on the family dairy farm at Doon Doon (between Uki and Nimbin on the NSW north coast). This photo may have been taken at Kingscliff during a family outing or picnic based on information gathered from other negatives.

The photo has a wonderful rhythm to its composition and captures the character of the subjects beautifully. It was probably taken on a Kodak box brownie or 1A camera using 116 film. The exposed area of the negative measured 6.5 x 11cm (2.5 x 4.25 inches) I have re-fixed and washed all the negatives over time and they show little sign of deterioration after 80 years or so. Will the descendants of current generations be lucky enough to have a treasure like this to look back on?

The negative has now been lost or misplaced after being borrowed by one of my cousins. Luckily, I had made several high resolution scans so I can create a large digital negative from these and make contact prints on traditional silver gelatin paper in my darkroom, or large digital prints.

Robert (Bob) Egan, Ralph Cudby, Joan Egan, Rita Cudby, Walter (Wal) Egan

Below is a photo of Jaffa Street, Jerusalem, taken by my Grandfather, Jack Keaton, in about 1943. Jack was serving with the Australian Army during WWII and was posted in what was then commonly called British Palestine. He was a keen photographer and took many images of his tours in the Middle East. I acquired many of his negatives after his death, scanned them all and later created a book of around 65 photos for my mother’s 70th birthday.

After scanning this negative I cleaned up the dust and scratches with a combination of scanning software and Photoshop tools. Recently, I created a large digital negative of this image and made a contact print on silver gelatin photographic paper in my darkroom. With proper care this image will outlive me by several centuries!

I have also included a version of the raw scan of the negative which shows the extent of dust and scratches which were cleaned up for the final print.

I am not sure of the exact address of Jack’s photo. I have also clipped a section from Google maps of a recent view of Jaffa St, Jerusalem, showing a similar style of architecture as appears in the background of his photo. Given the derelict state of these buildings and the presence of a crane in the background, I wonder if they will be preserved or are ultimately to be demolished. I would welcome any additional information about this area of Jerusalem others can provide.

Jaffa St, Jerusalem, c. 1943, by Jack Keaton

Initial negative scan

Jaffa St, Jerusalem, today, from Google maps

SilverTone Studio is sponsoring Tony’s current photography exhibition at the Corner Gallery in Stanmore. Tony will be in the gallery this coming week Wed-Sun, August 8th to 12th from 11am-6pm. There will be an artist’s talk at 2pm on Saturday 11th. Additionally, at the rear of the exhibition, there are many examples of SilverTone Studio’s services. What better way to spend an hour or so on your weekend but to visit sunny Stanmore and take in some increasingly rare silver gelatin photographic prints!

‘Sand in Silver’ Exhibition – August 2-13, 2018

http://thecornergallerystanmore.com/#front-page-4

About 15 years ago I was given some negatives of my great grandfather’s dairy farm at Doon Doon in northern NSW. Mick Egan was a WWI returned serviceman and was granted a parcel of ‘unimproved’ land which he first occupied in about 1927. Unimproved meant, “here’s a few hundred acres of dense eucalypt forest, go for your life!”

On a recent visit to my parents I supplemented the file of negatives with scans of about 70 additional original photographs, most of which were small contact prints of other long lost negatives. I hope to create a book of these images in coming months. On this visit I also learnt for the first time that the farm was called ‘The Heights’.

The photos and negatives span the period from about 1927 to 1940 and show the clearing of the farm, construction of the farm house and the arrival of my father and some of his siblings. After his marriage, Mick’s eldest son Jim, my grandfather, worked on another dairy farm nearby and it appears family visits and those of others friends and relatives was often the impetus for bringing out the camera.

To say the creation of this viable farm was hard work is no doubt an understatement when considering the physical effort most ‘work’ requires today. Felling hundreds of gum trees with a hand saw, ploughing with the help of only 2 horsepower and milking cows twice daily by hand, makes accounting seem very attractive in comparison.

After WWII my grandfather took over the farm until around 1957 when it was sold by the family. My father’s generation elected white collar vocations and the supply of labour dissipated as the family aged and economic conditions changed. I visited and photographed the property in 2007 and it has now apparently become a wealthy man’s occasional bucolic retreat with its idyllic setting and commanding views of Mount Warning. May the sweat and toil which once sustained a family and created this gift not be soon forgotten.

In 1973 American singer/songwriter Paul Simon released a song called Kodachrome which contained the lyrics:

“Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away”

My auntie recently sent me a large box containing over 2,000 slides taken by my grandmother, Thelma, mostly in the first half of the 1980s when she was in her seventies. It contains predominantly Kodachrome slides which still retain to this day those nice bright colours. Kodak did in fact takes its Kodachrome away in 2009 when it finally ceased production of Kodachrome 64 film. The last roll of Kodachrome film was developed in the USA in 2010.

I am in the process of digitising all these slides and have started sharing some images with the extended family and, thanks to the quality of the Kodachrome process, there has been very little deterioration in the film.

Thelma lived most of her life around Murwillumbah on the far north coast of NSW. Her interests were her family and the day to day events in and around her home town. She had seven children and many grandchildren. Her first husband, my grandfather Jim, died in 1979 at the age of 66. Thelma remarried in 1984 and her second husband, Dawson, died about three years later. After Jim died she learnt to drive for the first time, much to the consternation of some of her children. However, it did allow her to regularly make the short drive from Condong to Murwillumbah to photograph what was going on in town.

The majority of photos in the collection are from just before Thelma’s second marriage and the three or four years after. During this time she captures days trips around the North Coast, family events and the mundane commercial development of downtown Murwillumbah. There is an extended series of photos showing the demolition of old homes in several streets near the centre of town to make way for the construction of government buildings and the first large supermarket complex. Thankfully, almost every slide is meticulously labelled. Perhaps my grandmother was a conservationist at heart. She may not have used that word but I get the impression from looking at her slides she felt it was a great shame the old weatherboard homes had to go to make way for a new Coles.

Everything looks worse in black and white?

Tony
SilverTone Studio

I have pressed the go button on the SilverTone Studio website so I invite you to have a look at the photography services I provide.

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Photography is at a very interesting point in its development and history. Most people up to the age of about 30 have never held a film camera in their hands and have only known photography in its digital form. Increasingly this is experienced now only through the smartphone. The ‘selfie’ is probably the most ubiquitous form of photography being practised.

In my younger days you were usually a Canon or Nikon person as 35mm film photography dominated the popular photography market. I remember being a little shocked in about 2003 when someone told me that these two iconic brands had been overtaken by Nokia as the world’s biggest camera manufacturer.

There is, however, a growing interest in film photography by the under 30 generation. Cynics and curmudgeons might call this a vacuous, hipster infatuation as plastic medium format cameras like Lomo and Diana gain popularity among the smart set. Lowfi, imperfect images apparently being a reaction to the crass and infinitely sharp output from the smartphone. I don’t really mind as long as the demand for film continues! Many people over 30 are also returning to film, particularly the black and white medium, in search of something which seems more authentic, artistic and less instantaneous in its production.

I have spent almost 40 years working with film and maintain a fully functioning darkroom to develop and print black and white photographs. I am also very interested in preserving family history and encouraging people to protect and save negatives, slides and original prints. The options available today for high quality book production from digital images is one of the most exciting developments of the last 10 years. It has never been easier to create a book to share with family members or friends. These physical artefacts are much more likely to survive than zeroes and ones stuck on a hard drive somewhere.

If you have found a shoe box full of old slides, negatives or prints and don’t know what to do next, then perhaps I can help. There is magic lying within and it deserves to be exposed to a new audience!

Tony
SilverTone Studio

When all you have is a print and it is fading, marked or in need of restoration. Perhaps you have a valuable or cherised family photo you would like to copy and share with other family members.

Silvertone can scan or rephotograph any photo and create a digital image file suitable for sharing on social media sites or for printing at any size or quality.

Refer to the Pricing page (see top menu) for indicative rates for scanning or re-photographing original prints.