John Chester Cato (2 November 1926 – 30 January 2011) was an Australian photographer and teacher. Cato started his career as a commercial photographer and later moved towards
fine art photography
Fine-art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as artist, using photography as a medium for creative expression. The goal of fine-art photography is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion. This stand ...
and education. Cato spent most of his life in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Photography career
![DawnJohn1949WomensWeeklyPic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/DawnJohn1949WomensWeeklyPic.jpg)
John Chester Cato was born on November 2, 1926, in
Hobart
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, Tasmania, to Mary Booth and John (Jack) Cato.
His career in photography started at the age of 12 as an apprentice to his father,
Jack Cato
John Cyril "Jack" Cato, F.R.P.S. (4 April 1889 – 14 August 1971) was a significant Australian portrait photographer in the Pictorialist style, operating in the first half of the twentieth century. He was the author of the first history of Aust ...
. Returning in 1946 after service in the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
for the
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...
during
WW2
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Cato worked as a self-employed photographer before being hired by
''The Argus'' as a
press photographer
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
in 1947.
Cato held that position until 1950 when he became a photographer and assistant for
Athol Shmith
Louis Athol Shmith (19 August 1914 – 21 October 1990) was an Australian studio portrait and fashion photographer and photography educator in his home city of Melbourne, Australia. He contributed to the promotion of international photograph ...
Pty Ltd. in the Rue de la Paix building at 125
Collins Street, Melbourne.
He married Dawn Helen Cadwallader of
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
at the register at St. Mary's Church of England,
East Caulfield, in October that year. Their eldest son, also John, was born in 1952.
During this period he undertook research for his father Jack on the latter's ''The Story of the Camera in Australia'' published in 1955.
That year, Cato and Shmith became business partners and started Athol Shmith-John Cato Pty Ltd.
When the
MoMA
Moma may refer to:
People
* Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist
* Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician
* Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher
Places
; Ang ...
The Family of Man
''The Family of Man'' was an ambitious exhibition of 503 photography, photographs from 68 countries curated by Edward Steichen, the director of the New York City Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) Department of Photography. According to Steichen, ...
exhibition came to Melbourne's Preston Motors Show Room on February 23, 1959, Cato visited the show several times and was inspired by its
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
themes and optimism.
The partners' business was prospering and at times employed 26 staff and hired other photographers including Norman Ikin and
Hans Hasenpflug
Hans Hasenpflug (1907–1977) was born in Germany and migrated to Australia where he became a portrait and fashion photographer and was naturalised.
Biography
Hans Hasenpflug was born in Germany in 1907 where he was trained as a clerk for a ...
to cope with the volume of business. By 1958 they were known so well by the public that their portraits could be used to endorse a television brand in its advertising. Cato's clients included U.S.P. Benson Pty. Ltd., Worth Hosiery,
Myer
Myer (stylised MYER, sometimes known as Myers) is an Australia, Australian mid-range to upscale department store chain. It trades in all Australian states and one of Australia's two self-governing territories. Myer retails a broad range of ...
, Hammersley Iron Pty Ltd,
The Australian Ballet
The Australian Ballet is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur and direct ...
,
Southern Cross Hotel
The Southern Cross Hotel was a hotel in Melbourne, Australia. It was opened by the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, on 24 August 1962 as Australia's first modern 'International' hotel, heralding the arrival of American-style glamour, the jet-set ...
and
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
, and his fashion photography occupied full pages of newspapers and magazines.
Nevertheless Cato moved away from commercial photography in 1974 after experiencing what he described as "a kind of menopause". Shortly after leaving his partnership with Athol Shmith, Cato began his teaching career and started to focus on fine art photography. Cato was one of the first photographers in Melbourne to give up their commercial practice to become a fine art photographer.
Fine art photography
In 1970, four years before leaving his commercial practice, Cato began exploring photography as an art form. His fine art photography drew connections between humanity and the environment, exploring a different theme in each
photo essay A photographic essay or photo-essay for short is a form of visual storytelling, a way to present a narrative through a series of images. A photo essay delivers a story using a series of photographs and brings the viewer along a narrative journey.
E ...
.
Cato made 'straight' (directly imaged)
landscape photographs usually with large or medium-format cameras in order to "explore the elements of the landscape", usually enhancing these in printing. Over a ten-year period, Cato spent two years at a time focusing on a particular symbolic theme in the Australian landscape, often spending a large amount of time in the wilderness observing the conditions and waiting for the perfect opportunity. He would often wait and contemplate a scene for days before finally pressing the shutter when the moment was right. Cato's work was deeply considered and clearly showed his unique perspective on the natural elements around us.
Cato used
symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sy ...
in his work, the consciously constructed image being an interest among 1970s photographers, young and experienced, including his colleague
Paul Cox.
The question of the status of photography as an art form was being resolved during this decade;
Lynne Warren
Lynne Warren an American curator and writer who worked from 1977 to 2020 at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago. She is a scholar of the Chicago Imagists, conceptual photography, Alexander Calder, and Chicago art from the mid-twenty-fir ...
writes "The creative uses of photography expanded considerably in the 1970s. The medium began to be absorbed into the ''mainstream'' art world as conceptual and performance artists started to employ the medium. For body artist
Stelarc
Stelarc (born Στέλιος Αρκαδίου ''Stelios Arcadiou'' in Limassol in 1946; legally changed his name in 1972) is a Cyprus-born Australian performance artist raised in the Melbourne suburb of Sunshine, whose works focus heavily on ex ...
, photographs were an important creative adjunct to his art events in the 1970s. In a different vein,
Jon Rhodes
Jon Rhodes is an Australian photographer who has been described as a "pioneer" in "the development of a collaborative methodology between high art photography and ustralianAboriginal people living in remote communities". Rhodes' work is repr ...
was one of several photographers of the period to address social issues when he used the medium to bring attention to land rights issues for Aboriginal people in the
Gove Peninsula
The Gove Peninsula is at the northeastern corner of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. The peninsula became strategically important during World War II when a Royal Australian Air Force base was constructed at what is now Gove ...
in his series, ''Just Another Sunrise?'' Others, such as John Cato and Les Walkling, explored the metaphoric potential of photography.
Cinematographer Nino Martinetti, one of Cato's past students, said "Look carefully at John Cato's simple photographs of rocks, branches, trees, bark, sand, water and reflections… is that reality? Yes, but not as many people see it. This is the fine line where the art of photography and reality stand, where the artist captures an emotion for us to share and interpret."
Cato's personal work was described as "a reflection of the
psyche
Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" (ψυχή).
Psyche may also refer to:
Psychology
* Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious
* ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unconscious by Car ...
, not of light, that allows a consciousness to be present in the figuration of the photographic prints. The personal work is an expression of his self, his experience, his story and his language." Gallery director Rebecca Hossack, who showed his work in her London gallery in 2002, reports that;
"Cato is not content to see himself merely as an 'artist' or a 'photographer.' He describes himself - in his beliefs - as an 'animist':
:"I believe that rocks have souls just as much as people. I think the word that has been used about my work which pleases me the most, is ..Elemental, and it is that element of life within the landscape that to some is a deep religious experience."
It is a vision that he traces back to the mythology of the Ancient Greeks, but it has interesting resonances, too, with the beliefs of the Australian aboriginals and the practice of their art."
''Earth Song''
''Earth Song ''was Cato's first collection of personal work to be exhibited. This series consisted of 52 colour photographs sequenced in a way that allowed the work to be recognised as individual photographs and as part of an overall concept. Cato's use of musical analogies can be seen in the sequencing of ''Earth Song'', described as using "melodic line and symphonic form as its metaphoric basis".
''Earth Song'' was exhibited as part of the ''Frontiers'' exhibition, a 1971 group show at the
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum.
The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...
of photographers who were exploring the idea of the medium as an art form.
Cato's sequence went on to Horsham Art Gallery 14 December 1974 – 30 January 1975 for his first solo exhibition.
''Essay 1: Landscapes in a Figure''
For Cato's first photographic essay described as such, he completed five black and white photo sequences between 1971 and 1979. In each sequence, Cato explored the expression of nature and creation, which he saw as the physical representation of his own life experiences and philosophy.
''Essay 2: Figures in a Landscape''
In the 1982 assessment of ''Age'' critic Geoff Strong, ''Essay 2'' is the "stuff of social comment" compared to other work, and focuses on "the sublimation of
Aboriginal culture
Australian Aboriginal culture includes a number of practices and ceremonies centered on a belief in the Dreamtime and other Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, mythology. Reverence and respect for the land and oral traditions are empha ...
by Europeans".
This series explores the idea of destruction of culture, spirituality and physicality using
duality to represent the idea photographically.
''Double Concerto: An Essay in Fiction''
''Double Concerto'' was Cato's final photo essay. This photo essay was published under the deliberately androgynous '
Everyman
The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.
Origin
The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...
' names Pat Noone and Chris Noone, two identities that Cato created to "visualise alternative conditions within himself". Each sequence, one monochrome single images and the other in full colour montages, explored how individual people can witness and experience the world very differently from each other.
This series was exhibited as Cato's "farewell show" at Luba Bilu Gallery in Greville St.
Prahran
Prahran (), also pronounced colloquially as Pran, is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City ...
on his retirement from teaching.
Teaching career
Cato began his teaching career in 1974 at
Prahran College of Advanced Education which became known as Melbourne’s most innovative art school, where he worked full-time. In 1975 however, government funding ended with
Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the he ...
's dismissal. He took up a position at Roger Hayne's newly established
Impact School of Photography before being again offered work at Prahran later in 1975. Until 1979 Cato taught part-time and then took over as Head of Photography when Athol Shmith retired due to ill health in 1980,
and remained in the role until the last year of Art & Design at Prahran, 1991 when at 65 he was forced, reluctantly, to retire.
Between 1977 and 1979 Cato also contributed to the foundation of
Photography Studies College from the Impact school, and concurrently lectured there until becoming full-time head of the photography department at Prahran. Cato was a passionate and generous teacher and was highly regarded by his students and peers. He described himself as being "duty bound" to share his experience with students and colleagues,
and they benefitted from his close knowledge of the history of Australian photography attained as he assisted his father in research for ''The Story of the Camera in Australia'', and in meeting its protagonists.
Many of Cato's past students have gone on to hold well regarded positions in the photography, art and education fields and as Deborah Ely notes "the department produced some of the country's most acclaimed practitioners",
including
Bill Henson
Bill Henson (born 7 October 1955) is an Australian contemporary art photographer.
Art
Henson has exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Venice Biennale, the National Gall ...
,
Carol Jerrems
Carol Jerrems (14 March 1949 – 21 February 1980) was an Australian photographer/filmmaker whose work emerged just as her medium was beginning to regain the acceptance as an art form that it had in the Pictorial era, and in which she newly sy ...
, Steve Lojewski,
Rozalind Drummond
Rozalind Drummond (born 1956) is a photographic artist and an early exponent of postmodernism in Australia.
Education
Drummond trained initially at Prahran College 1982-84, an institution which Australian Centre for Photography director Deborah ...
, Janina Green,
Andrew Chapman,
Phil Quirk,
Jacqueline Mitelman
Jacqueline Mitelman is an Australian portrait photographer.
Early life and education
Jacqueline Mitelman was born Jacqueline MacGreggor in Scotland in 1948, and has since lived in Melbourne and in France for a few years. She was briefly marri ...
,
Polly Borland
Polly Borland (born 1959) is an Australian photographer who formerly resided in England from 1989 to 2011, and now lives in Los Angeles, United States. She is known both for her editorial portraits and for her work as a photographic artist.
Bi ...
,
Susan Fereday,
Robert Ashton,
Peter Milne,
Leonie Reisberg,
Paul Torcello,
Stephen Wickham, Kate Williams, daughter of artist
Fred Williams, and Christopher Koller among others.
Henson, who regarded Cato as "very generous and enthusiastic", was inspired by his use of musical analogies, which Henson later incorporated in his own work.
Courtney Pedersen who has since become a senior academic, describes her learning from Cato as 'formative'.
Paul Cox, one of Cato's colleagues at Prahran College of Advanced Education, remarked that while the staff of Cato's department were photographers, none of them were qualified teachers; "Can you imagine that happening today? … At Prahran, teachers and students learnt from each other. It was an exchange."
Cato preferred to use
large
Large means of great size.
Large may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics
* Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers
* Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (or ...
and
medium
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
*Medium bomber, a class of war plane
* Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium of ...
format cameras in his own work for the higher resolution that they offered and when taking students on excursions, he insisted they use the same instead of
35mm SLR cameras that they more commonly used, so that the more technical view camera would force students to think before they pressed the shutter and
pre-visualise their photograph, rather than to 'blaze away' with expendable roll film.
Cato strongly believed in photography as a form of individualised expressionism, a view that was shared and supported by Athol Shmith, who was one of the first to teach photography as a creative course in the late 1960s.
Associate Professor Noel Hutchinson dedicated the ''Prahran Fine Art Graduate Show 1991'' catalogue 'in memoriam' to Cato in recognition of his retirement.
In the following year Prahran College was subsumed into the
Victorian College of the Arts
The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...
, formerly the
National Gallery of Victoria Art School
The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years.
It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery ...
, and Christopher Koller, one of Cato's former students, was made head of its photography department, inheriting his mentor's belief in the importance of conceptualisation and previsualisation in the medium.
Exhibitions and galleries
Cato exhibited his work with other photographers in 30 group exhibitions until 2003,
the earliest being in 1964 at Blaxland Gallery in Sydney, and in 20 solo exhibitions in Australian and international galleries before his death in 2011. The 1973 ''Frontiers'' at the
NGV with
Stan Ostoja-Kotkowski,
Mark Strizic, Peter Medlen and John Wilkins toured to the Australian Embassy in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
, June 27– July 5 and showed at Abraxas Gallery,
Manuka, in December 1974 with
Sue Ford, Les Gray and Mark Strizic. Cato's first solo exhibition was held at
Horsham
Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...
Regional Art Gallery (Victoria, Australia) in 1975, with subsequent solo exhibitions being held every few years up until 2004.
Cato's work is held in numerous gallery collections across Australia including the
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...
, the National Gallery of Victoria, Horsham Regional Art Gallery,
Albury
Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...
Regional Art Gallery,
Deakin University
Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia.
Its main campuses are in Melbourne's Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, ...
,
Tasmanian Art Gallery and
Melbourne State College
The Melbourne Teachers' College was an Australian tertiary training institution located on Grattan Street, Carlton. It was renamed the Melbourne State College and then the Melbourne College of Advanced Education. In 1989 it became part of the Un ...
. In addition to Australian galleries, Cato's work is also held in collections in the
Bibliotheque Nationale in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
and Schmidtbank Weiden in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
Paul Cox and Bryan Gracey, colleagues at Prahran College, co-curated the first retrospective of Cato's black and white landscape photographs taken between 1971 and 1991which they exhibited at the 2013
Ballarat International Foto Biennale, both believing that Cato's work deserves to be better recognised.
Paul Cox commented; "John will ride a high wave. He belongs in the National Gallery, in the high echelons and I think this is a very wonderful first step."
Critical reception
The first substantial review of Cato's work was negative; art historian and academic
Patrick McCaughey
Patrick McCaughey (born 1942) is an Irish-born Australian art historian and academic.
McCaughey was born in Belfast, his father being Davis McCaughey. He migrated with his family to Melbourne, Australia. when he was ten years old. His secondary ...
described the inaugural exhibition of the National Gallery's newly established photography department as 'optimistic' but panned the works of Stan Ostoja-Kotkowski, Mark Strizic, Peter Medlen and John Wilkins, and Cato's first display of fine art imagery, as "a combined blow to the aspiration of photography as a serious art," regarding "their aspiration to art
stepid pastiches of the more available and familiar modernist manners." He went on to single out Cato's wall-mounted sequence of colour prints (a novel display lit successively with timed strobes to indicate their sequence);
Nobody outdoes John Cato in sententiousness, however, except the writer of the catalogue. Noguchi Noguchi (野口 lit. "field entrance") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Akira Noguchi (:ja:野口明, 野口明), baseball player, older brother of Jirō Noguchi
* Akiyo Noguchi (:ja:野口啓代, 野口啓代), Jap ...
, Arp, Dubuffet
Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French Painting, painter and sculpture, sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what ...
are all pastiched in Cato's ''Earth Song'' series. But images here are nought to the words accompaning the photos:
"Never to mention Farex" quipped McCaughey, who then critiqued...
The aping of pictorial formulae hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
makes the photographer look homeless and uncertain in his art, depending on other media to establish that his photographs are "real art". These five mistake the modesty of the great photographers - Walker Evans
Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...
, Cartier Bresson, Brassai, Stieglitz - for lack of ambition within the medium. They compound that mistake by substituting pretension for innovation, inflation for experiment. All, one feels, would be better off with a box brownie and their local chemist to develop and print.
A year later Ray Davie included reference to the show in an article on the National Gallery photography department, remarking that ''Frontiers'', then about to tour Asia, was "not offensively Australian," not taken to show "our neighbours...flora and fauna," but "concerned with art rather than propaganda." He refers to Cato's 52 colour panels as a sole example, their "natural forms" intended "to give an unfolding narrative of life and nature's eternal re-creation."
Nancy Borlase
Nancy Wilmot Borlase (24 March 1914 – 11 September 2006) was a New Zealand-born Australian artist, known for her landscape-based abstract paintings and portraits, and as an art critic and commentator. Her work is displayed in the National Gal ...
reviewing Cato's series in Sydney in 1976 found herself;
...brought face to face, at the Australian Centre for Photography
The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) is a not-for-profit photography gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia that was established in 1973. ACP also provides part-time courses and community programs. It is one of the longest running con ...
, with the brooding mysteriousness of John Cato's ''Petroglyphs'', and the naked imagery of decay, in his odyssey of a tree's journey ..Cato's photographs reveal the truth behind the facade of outward appearances, as few other art forms can. They are less reflections. of nature, or of man's imprint upon nature, than powerfully expressive statements about nature, and about her spiritual sway over man, in the miraculously stacked stones of his ''Petroglyphs''. The harsh textures, knotty distortions and dramatic chiaroscuro effects which Cato captures in his trees and rocks give way, in his ''Sea-Wind'' Series, to a more lyrical and softly sensuous imagery, that in the textural contrasts of air, sand, water, shells and sinuous. slippery seaweed, is no less truthful.
Ruth Faerber, comparing his work with that of co-exhibitor Laurie Wilson at the same show, noted Cato's "dramatic and expansive themes"; "the sweeping movement of wind, the growth pattern in the cross-section of a tree trunk,"
and in 1979, of his solo show at
AGNSW commented that his "textures of trees. rocks and weathered surfaces take on a graphic surrealist" quality.
Cato showed again at the Australian Centre for Photography in a group show ''Time Present and Time Past: Part II'' in 1984, and Mark Hinderaker, in ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'' remarked that; "John Cato, Melbourne's master landscape photographer, is represented by two studies of natural form that at first glance seem reminiscent of
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...
: in one, tree branches emerge from water and a sandy bottom and, in the other, branches rise from Earth's cracked crust. Together these two remind us of the extreme conditions in nature and of the struggle of organisms to survive; as well, the branches emerge from the planar surfaces like objects (in the photograph's illusion of depth) emerge from the surface of flat paper."
In a review of Cato's 1997 retrospective at
The Photographers' Gallery
The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography.
It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established in ...
, ''The Age'' reviewer
Freda Freiberg noted his achievements;
Cato has made an inestimable contribution to photography in this state as a teacher. As an artist he has pursued an intense engagement with nature—with trees, rocks and skies. He studies, anatomises, magnifies and glorifies the manifold designs and patterns of creation. The social world is absent—except in the ''Mantracks'' series, where graffiti on rocks and debris on trees signify the disfiguring effects of an imported culture. But even here, Cato is less social critic than contemplative observer. He finds perfect objective correlatives to his private inner states in the darkness and light, solidity ad softness, and infinite variety of pattern in tree trunks, clouds and rock faces.[Freda Freiberg 'The combinations of creation'. ''The Age'' Friday, April 11, 1997, Page 27]
In the 2013
Ballarat International Foto Biennale guide, Cato was described as being "underrated" and "far ahead of his time".
Paul Cox, in whose 1987 film ''
Vincent
Vincent ( la, Vincentius) is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, which is derived from the Latin word (''to conquer'').
People with the given name Artists
*Vincent Apap (1909–2003), Maltese sculptor
*Vincent van Gogh ...
'' Cato appears, said the following in an article for ''
The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'': "He was a dreamer. I always adored him. John had a wonderful heart; he was tender for a man. You know you don't know many people like that."
In his autobiography, Cox assures his readers that Cato " will one day be recognised as one of the true greats in the art of photography."
Nevertheless, Cato was known for being a modest photographer who never intended fame for himself or his work, which was its own reward. Consequently, and from a strong dislike of publicity, Cato issued his final work under pseudonyms, characteristically exhibiting his valedictory exhibition as 'Pat and Chris Noone'. Paul Cox confirmed that "Ego is always the biggest limitation of an artist, but John had no ego. He was a free man."
Isobel Crombie, head photography curator at the National Gallery of Victoria, shared Cox's opinion and said "He was different in that he did not have the huge ego of some of his contemporaries."
Melissa Miles, writing in 2015 places Cato amongst John Kauffmann,
Cecil Bostock,
Olive Cotton
Olive Cotton (11 July 191127 September 2003) was a pioneering Australian modernist photographer of the 1930s and 1940s working in Sydney. Cotton became a national "name" with a retrospective and touring exhibition 50 years later in 1985. A book ...
,
Max Dupain
Maxwell Spencer Dupain AC OBE (22 April 191127 July 1992) was an Australian modernist photographer.
Early life
Dupain received his first camera as a gift in 1924, spurring his interest in photography. He later joined the Photographic Society ...
,
Laurence Le Guay
Laurence Craddock Le Guay (25 December 1916 – 2 February 1990), was an Australian fashion photographer.
Biography
Laurence Craddock Le Guay was born on 25 December 1916 at Chatswood, New South Wales, Chatswood Sydney, of locally born parents ...
,
Richard Waldendorp,
David Moore and
Grant Mudford
Grant Mudford (born 1944 in Sydney), is an Australian photographer.
Life and work
From 1963 to 1964 he studied architecture at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. From 1965 to 1974, he established a commercial photography studio in S ...
who "together represent the broad sweep of abstraction from the steely industrial shapes associated with the straight style to the images aimed at capturing movement and the organic and unruly images derived from nature."
Exhibitions
Solo
Group
Collections
Aside from staging his own exhibitions, Cato was instrumental in the acceptance of photography into the mainstream art establishment. After considerable lobbying by Shmith and others a separate Department of Photography had been established at the
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum.
The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...
(NGV) in Melbourne. Cato served on an advisory group formed in 1969 during the establishment of the gallery's new Photography Department and oversaw the appointment of the first curator of photography in Australia,
Jennie Boddington
Jennifer "Jennie" Boddington (née Blackwood) (1922 – 15 November 2015) was an Australian film director and producer, who was first curator of photography at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, Melbourne (1972–1994), a ...
in 1972.
Publications
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*
*
Honorary appointments
Over his career, Cato was active in national and international networking amongst the photographic and art education fields. He filled a number of honorary roles including one that was a request by Prahran graduates Euan McGillivray, the Curator of Photography at the
Science Museum of Victoria, and Matthew Nickson, who worked at the Photography Department at
RMIT
RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia.
Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scienc ...
, to chair the landmark conference 'Working Papers On Photography' (
WOPOP) Australian Photography Conference, held at Prahran College of Advanced Education, Melbourne, from 19–21 September 1980.
* 1969–76 Photography Advisor,
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum.
The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...
* 1976 Consultant for Grant Selection,
Australia Council
The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...
* 1977–80 Executive Council,
Australian Centre for Photography
The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) is a not-for-profit photography gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia that was established in 1973. ACP also provides part-time courses and community programs. It is one of the longest running con ...
* 1977–87 Honours Executive and Juror, Institute of Australian Photography
* 1978–79 Course Advisor,
Victorian College of the Arts
The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...
* 1978–82 International Advisory Board, History of Photography (
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...
)
* 1979 Executive Council, Australian Photography Educational Council
* 1980 Course Advisor,
Bendigo College of Advanced Education
* 1980–82 Advisor,
City of Waverley Art Collection
* 1981 Chairman, Australian Photography Education Council
* 1982 Chairman,
WOPOP Photography Conference
* 1981–91 Course Advisor and External Assessor,
Photography Studies College, Melbourne
* 1982 Researcher and curator 'Jack Cato' a Retrospective Exhibition
* 1985–86 Foundation Member and Steering Committee, and Design,
Victoria College Victoria Centre for Photography
* 1987–89 Advisory Board,
Victorian Centre for Photography
Awards
Cato was honoured with numerous awards including
Fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
at the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers (1991) and
Honorary Doctor
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
of Arts at
RMIT University
RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city ...
(1999). He was also awarded two grants, one a
Visual Arts Board
The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...
Travel Grant in 1985 and the other a Research and Development Grant from
Victoria College in 1990.
* 1962 Associate Australian Institute of Photography
* 1978 Honorary Fellow, Australian Institute of Photography
* 1985 $2,000 Visual Arts Board Travel Grant, towards airfare to exhibit work in Bayreuth, West Germany
* 1990 Research and Development Grant, Victoria College
* 1991 Fellow, Australian Institute of Professional Photography
* 1999 Honorary Doctor of Arts, RMIT University
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cato, John
1926 births
2011 deaths
Australian animists
20th-century Australian photographers
Commercial photographers
Fine art photographers
Landscape photographers
Artists from Tasmania
Photography academics
Australian art teachers
People from Hobart
Art educators
Photographers from Melbourne
Symbolist artists
Royal Australian Navy personnel of World War II
Military personnel from Tasmania