Eric Keast Burke (16 January 1896 – 31 March 1974) was a New Zealand-born Australian photographer and journalist.

Early life and education

Burke was born at

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, New Zealand. He was the only child of Walter Ernest Burke, and his wife Amy Eliza Mary, nee Thompson. He went to Sydney with his family in March 1904 and was educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

where he studied economics.Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Retrieved 6 June 2014.

War service

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, after a year in the Signal Corps,

Australian Military Forces The Australian Military Forces (AMF) was the official name of the Army of Australia from 1916 to 1980. This encompassed both the (full-time) "regular army", and the (part-time) forces, variously known during this period as the Militia, the Citizen ...

, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. He embarked for the Middle East in December 1917 and served as a

sapper A sapper, also called a pioneer or combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing ...

with the 1st Australian Wireless Signal Squadron, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force.National Archives of Australia.
Burke's World War I Service Record. Retrieved 6 June 2014. He was discharged on 28 January 1920 on his return to Sydney. On 23 November 1925 he married Iris Lily Daniell. During

World War II 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 ...

he served as a captain in the Volunteer Defence Corps, and worked in intelligence.

Photography and research

In 1922 he became associate-editor, under his father, of the '' Australasian Photo-Review''. He exhibited his work in Australia, Europe, London and the United States of America, and in 1938 was elected an associate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain for a portfolio of male figure studies. That year he was appointed Australian chairman of

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

International Salons of Photography. He edited the ''Australasian Photo-Review'' from 1943–1956. Recognizing the significance of photography to Australian history, in 1943 Burke published a series of articles on early photographers, among them

William Jevons William Stanley Jevons (; 1 September 183513 August 1882) was an English economist and logician. Irving Fisher described Jevons's book ''A General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy'' (1862) as the start of the mathematical method in eco ...

J. W. Lindt John William Lindt (1845–1926), was a German-born Australian landscape and ethnographic photographer, early photojournalist, and portraitist. Early life and arrival in Australia Johannes Wilhelm Lindt (often referred to in the literature sim ...

and Charles Kerry. His wife, Iris, became his valued research assistant. In 1952 Burke located the

Holtermann Collection The Holtermann Collection is the name given to a collection of over 3,500 glass-plate negatives and albumen prints, many of which depict life in New South Wales goldfield towns. It also includes numerous photographs of Australian rural towns a ...

of wet-plate negatives and recommended its donation to the Mitchell Library in Sydney; in a shed in

Chatswood, New South Wales Chatswood is a major business and residential district in the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 10 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the lo ...

, glass plates created by Beaufoy Merlin and

Charles Bayliss Charles Bayliss (1850-4 June 1897), photographer, was born in Hadleigh, Suffolk, England in 1850.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 ...

through regular correspondence as the latter was researching for his ''The Story of the Camera in Australia'', published in 1955. In 1956 after the ''Australasian Photo-Review'' folded, he was employed as advertising manager for the

Company.

Later life

Having formally retired at 64 in 1960, from 1961 to 1969 Burke was the first editor and then art director of ''Australian Popular Photography'' (later named ''Australian Photography''), a contributor to the Australian Dictionary of Biography and a frequent judge of photographic competitions. As consultant in photography to the

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 ...

, Canberra, he oversaw the preservation of historic photographs. He later published ''Gold and silver : an album of Hill End and Gulgong photographs from the Holtermann Collection'' in 1973. Burke lectured on the collection, prepared exhibitions and presented a television series, 'Peeps into the Past with Keast Burke', for the

Australian Broadcasting Commission The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...

. His other interests included

bushwalking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histo ...

, native flora and fauna,

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

, maps and map-making, amateur radio, architecture and engineering. Eric Keast Burke died on 31 March 1974 in

Concord Repatriation General Hospital Concord Repatriation General Hospital (abbreviated CRGH), commonly referred to as Concord Hospital, is a major hospital in Sydney, Australia, on Hospital Road in Concord. It is a teaching hospital of Sydney Medical School at the University of ...

and was

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

. He was survived by his wife Lilly, a daughter and three sons.

Works

* * *

References

External links

Photo Web.
Keast Burke pages. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
National Library of Australia.
Keast Burke Collection. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Works by Keast Burke. Retrieved 6 June 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Eric Keast 20th-century Australian historians New Zealand emigrants to Australia 1896 births 1974 deaths Historians of photography Australian magazine editors Australian biographers 20th-century Australian photographers 20th-century Australian journalists Male biographers People from Christchurch Australian military personnel of World War I Volunteer Defence Corps officers Artists from Christchurch