Nicholas John Caire (28 February 1837 – 13 February 1918) was an Australian photographer. Caire was born in Guernsey, Channel Islands, to Nicholas Caire and Hannah Margeret. As a boy Caire spoke French found he had a passion for photography that his parents encouraged. Caire moved to

Adelaide, Australia Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The demo ...

, along with both his parents in 1860. Around this time Caire Found a mentor in

Townsend Duryea Townsend Duryea (1823 – 13 December 1888) and his brother Sanford Duryea (22 February 1833 – 20 March 1903, see below) were American-born photographers who provided South Australians with invaluable images of life in the early colony. Their ...

. in 1867 he opened his own studio in

. He was married to Louisa Master in 1870 and then shortly after moved to

Talbot, Victoria Talbot is a town in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the , Talbot had a population of 442. History In September 1836, Major Thomas Livingstone Mitchell and his party reached the Talbot district and passed in the vicinity of Mount ...

where he continued his photography and started to write for Life and Health Magazine. Caire died in 1918 in

Armadale, Victoria Armadale is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 7 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Stonnington local government area. Armadale recorded a population of 9,368 at the 2021 cens ...

Photography

At a young age Caire developed his passion for his photography and, with encouragement from his parents, he pursued this goal his entire life. Caire never pursued any other career goals that didn't include photography. Shortly after, he moved to Australia he found his mentor, photographer

. His work in 1865 consisted of him taking

Wet plate The collodion process is an early photographic process. The collodion process, mostly synonymous with the "collodion wet plate process", requires the photographic material to be coated, sensitized, exposed, and developed within the span of about ...

images of the

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

. Two years later in 1867 Caire opened his first studio in

. Three years later Caire moved to

. In 1876 he brought his second studio in Collins Street,

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 ...

. Until 1885, Caire specialized mostly in portrait photography, The development of the

Dry Plate Dry plate, also known as gelatin process, is an improved type of photographic plate. It was invented by Dr. Richard L. Maddox in 1871 and had become so widely adopted by 1879 that the first dry plate factory had been established. With much of ...

process in 1855 revolutionized what photographers could do with

landscape photography Landscape photography shows the spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes ...

. This caused him to leave the city and set up a new studio in South Yarra. At this point Caire decided to focus on outdoor photography, particularly the Australian landscape. His photography aided in helping the tourism around Gippsland, the place which one of his most popular bodies of work, Gippsland Scenery, was named, this body of work is believed to have contained roughly 60 images. Then when Australia got access to x-ray photography, Caire would shoot X-Ray photography at the Melbourne General Hospital one day each week, he did this for free. He would only work with what he considered to be perfect conditions, this meant he would only take one or maybe two images a day, but because of the image quality in the work he would produce he could sell his works for a very high price and in large quantities. His best known series documented the rewards and hardships in the daily life of the first settlers.

Exhibitions

Caire currently still has 5 artworks on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. With a previous exhibition being held at the same place consisting of 32 artworks on display, the exhibition was titled Nicholas Caire. At his Calcutta Exhibition Caire was awarded a prize for his images of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. List of exhibitions * ''Nicholas John Caire: photographer 1837–1918'', at Art Gallery of New South Wales,

Sydney, NSW Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountains ...

, 1 November 1980 – 14 December 1980. * ''Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition'', at Exhibition Building, Melbourne, Victoria, 1888–1889. * '' Calcutta International Exhibition'', at

Calcutta, India Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

, 1883–1884 * ''Melbourne International Exhibition'', at Exhibition Building,

, 1880–1881. * ''Sydney International Exhibition'', at Garden Palace, Sydney, 1879–1880

Death

Caire died on 13 February 1918. he was living in

, Australia at the time. He left behind many albums of his landscape work. A few of his negatives have been kept, unfortunately, most of his glass plates were cleaned off, to be used as glass for framing his pictures that he sold, because of the shortages in supplies during the

First World War 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 ...

, framing was a major part of his business. This included many of his ones used in his major folio Gippsland Scenery, which is his best known work. He was survived by his wife, Louisa Master, his two sons and his four daughters, to one of whom he left his two cameras.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caire, Nicholas Australian photographers 1918 deaths 1837 births Guernsey emigrants to Australia