Sydney or country NSW studio

[abcsydney]

Hello,

I have a large print of my ggfather with the name of a photographic studio in George St Sydney on the lower part of the print, taken in 1897 or 1898.

He travelled from Melb via Sydney on his way to visit his son in country NSW. I was wondering if the photo was taken & printed in Sydney  studio or could it have been taken in country NSW & only printed in Sydney?

Any comments please.

Regards,
abcsydney

[PrueM]

Hi abcsydney 

When you say "large portrait", how large is it?  I ask because if it's an enlargement (these are usually photographic prints with black or coloured overpainting) then the likelihood is greater that the original photo could have been taken elsewhere, with the enlargement made in the Sydney studio at a later date. 

If the original photo was taken by someone other than the Sydney photographer, the enlargement would have been done by taking another photograph of the original photo, and using the resulting negative to print an enlargement.

If the original photo was taken in the Sydney studio then of course they could have used their own negative to make the enlargement.

In short, there's no way of knowing really, but as an enlargement could be made from someone else's photograph, it's possible that the original photo was taken elsewhere.

I hope that made sense! 

Cheers
Prue

[abcsydney]

Hello Prue,


"When you say "large portrait", how large is it?".  From memory it's approx 8 inches wide by 10 inches tall, black & white photo, full shot of ggf seated, taken in a photo studio. There's a little amount of maybe charcoal on the photo. Photo is framed.

Also another photo of his wife only, same details.

I'm not sure if the female photo was his first or second wife.   The back of the frame is covered with brown paper so I can't view back of photo for possible name of subject. Maybe I should leave the subject's name a mystery.

Regards,
abcsydney