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Ruth Hollick

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Ruth Hollick
Born(1883-03-17)17 March 1883
Melbourne, Australia
Died7 April 1977(1977-04-07) (aged 94)
Sandringham, Victoria
NationalityAustralian
OccupationPhotographer

Ruth Miriam Hollick (17 March 1883 – 7 April 1977) was an Australian portrait and fashion photographer who was one of Melbourne's leading Pictorialist[1] photographers during the 1920s.

Education and personal life

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Ruth Miriam Hollick was born in the Williamstown area of Melbourne, Australia, in 1883, the last of 13 children of Harry Ebenezer Hollick, a civil servant, and Frances Jane (Cole) Hollick. She was raised in the suburb of Moonee Ponds[2] and educated at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School (1902–06), where one of her teachers was the painter Frederick McCubbin, but she received no formal training in photography.[3]

Her professional partner, Dorothy Izard, was also her life partner.[3]

Photography career

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There is evidence that Hollick was experimenting with photography in a home darkroom by 1907.[2] The following year, she set herself up as a freelance photographer who toured rural areas of the state of Victoria, making portraits of families, especially children.[3][4] She worked mostly outdoors in natural light with a field camera.[3]

By World War I, Hollick had shifted into studio photography, initially working out of her parents' house in Moonee Ponds and later moving into Mina Moore's former studio in the Auditorium Building downtown, subsequently expanding still further into Chartres House.[3]

Style

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It was in this period that Hollick developed a reputation for skillful use of both natural and studio lighting and for stylish compositions, often setting her subjects against plain backgrounds.[3][5] She specialized in portraits of society figures and celebrities, as well as fashion photography for use in advertisements.[2][3] For example, she took several pictures of the British aviator Amy Johnson on her 1930 world tour, including the official Australian portrait.[2]

Recognition

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For most of the 1920s, Hollick was one of Melbourne's two leading photographers, along with Pegg Clarke,[6] and she exhibited her work both locally and internationally.[2][3] Palmer and Jolly make the case that Hollick's exhibition of children's photographs held in her studio in 1928 was 'most likely the first solo exhibition by a female photographer in Australia,’ though that it was the 'first solo exhibition by an Australian woman photographer in Australia'[7] is more strictly correct, as Batchen points to 'a display of twenty albumen prints by [British photographer] Julia Margaret Cameron in 1874 in the Drawing Room of Government House'.[8]

During this period of the 'twenties Hollick won at least six silver awards and numerous bronze awards in various shows.[3] Her photographs were regularly published in Art in Australia and other Australian magazines.[2] However during the Great Depression she was obliged to give up her downtown studios and returned to working from Moonee Ponds.

Legacy

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In 1950 Hollick and Izard embarked on their first overseas travel, visiting relatives and touring the UK. On their return they moved to Heidelberg.[9] Hollick retired from photography in 1950 and died in 1977 at Sandringham.[3] In recent years, her work has regained prominence and has been included in at least two large-scale exhibitions of Australian photography.

Selected exhibitions

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  • The Paris End: Photography, Fashion & Glamour (2007; National Gallery of Victoria touring exhibition)
  • Masterpieces of Australian Photography (1989)
  • Amateur Photographer Overseas Exhibition, London (1932)
  • Melbourne Exhibition of Pictorial Photography (1929: only woman in show)
  • Chicago Photographic Exhibition (1927)
  • Colonial Exhibitions of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain (1925, 1927)
  • London Salon of Photography (1920)[2][3]

Collections

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Hollick's glass plate negatives and original prints are held in collections of the following institutions:[3]

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Studio portraits photographed by Ruth Hollick
  • Almost half-length, to left, with eyes looking down, wearing straw hat and scarf on shoulders
    Miss Moira Rodgers
  • Almost three-quarter-length, sitting, to left, hands clasped and up to neck, laughing.
    Miss J Purves-Smith
  • Half-length, left profile, wearing striped knitted jumper -- Half-length, to right, looking down, wearing striped knitted jumper
    Mrs. Esmond Lillies
Images courtesy of Ruth Hollick Collection, State Library Victoria.

References

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  1. ^ Warren, Lynne. Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography. Routledge, 2005, p. 87.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Wyk, Susan Van. "Ruth Hollick b. 17 March 1883". Design and Art Australia Online, 1995. Updated 2011, accessed 13 May 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Hall, Barbara. "Hollick, Ruth Miriam (1883–1977)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, vol. 14, 1996.
  4. ^ Cato, Jack. The Story of the Camera in Australia. Melbourne: Institute of Australian Photographers, 1955.
  5. ^ Kerr, Joan, ed. Heritage: The National Women's Art Book: 500 Works by 500 Australian Women Artists from Colonial Times to 1955. Craftsman House, 1995, p. 283.
  6. ^ Hall, Barbara; Mather, Jenni, 1946- (1986), Australian women photographers 1840-1960, Greenhouse Publications, pp. 64–66, ISBN 978-0-86436-039-7{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Jolly, Martyn; Palmer, Daniel (31 May 2023), Installation View: Photography Exhibitions in Australia (1848-2020), Perimeter Editions, p. 95, retrieved 26 November 2024
  8. ^ Batchen, Geoffrey (2021). "Book Review : Installation View: Photography Exhibitions in Australia 1848–2020: Daniel Palmer and Martyn Jolly. Perimeter Editions, Melbourne, 2021. 424 pages with 16-page insert, with 218 colour illustrations. Hardcover AUS$59.00". History of Photography. 45 (1): 101–103. doi:10.1080/03087298.2021.2020476. ISBN 978-1-922-54500-8 – via TAYLOR & FRANCIS.
  9. ^ "Hollick, Ruth (1883-1977)". TROVE. Retrieved 3 July 2018.

Further reading

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