Grahame Garner (19282015) was an Australian photographer and political activist for peace in

Brisbane, Queensland Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

. Grahame John Garner was a marine engineer in the merchant navy during the 1940s and 1950s, before becoming a fitter and turner for the Brisbane tramways.

Photographic career and political activism

Garner took up photography as a hobby forming a Tramways Photographic Society with colleague, Ross Callcott. Their photographs attracted the attention of the Queensland Police's

Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...

, as some of their photographs of Brisbane trams were sent to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

as part of the Australian Soviet Friendship Society of which Garner was a member. He organised the last tram ride through Brisbane to celebrate the passing of the tram network. Garner was an active amateur photographer and amassed a huge collection of photographs of subjects ranging from his dogs, trams in Brisbane and political marches during the 1960s. He submitted photographs to the ''Queensland Guardian'', the newspaper of the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been i ...

. He took many photographs of the Vietnam Moratorium marches of Brisbane in 1970 and other student protests between 1963 and 1971. He had an interest in ballet and took many photographs of the visiting

Bolshoi Ballet The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies. In the early 20th century, it came to internatio ...

and

Moscow Circus The title Moscow State Circus is used for a variety of circuses. Most commonly, it refers to one of the two circus buildings in Moscow, the " Circus Nikulin" (the old circus, featuring animal acts) and the "Bolshoi Circus" (the new circus, feat ...

in Brisbane, as well as over 900 photographs of the Lisner Ballet Academy, which would later become the

Queensland Ballet The Queensland Ballet, founded in 1960 by Charles Lisner OBE, is the premier ballet company of Queensland, Australia and is based in Brisbane. Queensland Ballet is one of only three full-time, professional classical ballet companies in Australi ...

. After his retirement he moved to the Nambour area of Queensland where he continued his campaigns opposing high rise growth along the Sunshine Coast and stood for council election. His house and camera was destroyed by fire, although his photographic negative collection survived. Many of these photographs are now held in the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

Fryer Library and

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

collections. He and his wife, Esme were awarded the Eureka Australia Day Award in 2011 for their lifelong political activity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garner, Grahame 1928 births 2015 deaths Australian photographers Australian political people