Mountain of Iron

Man standing beside a mechanical shovel digging into a mountain of iron, at B.H.P. Ltd, Iron Knob, South Australia

Harold Cazneaux was born in New Zealand in 1878. His family moved to Sydney in 1887 and then to Adelaide two years later. At the age of 18, Cazneaux began his photographic career at Hammer Photographic Studios in Rundle Street, working as an artist-retoucher alongside his father who was employed as a portraitist.

Cazneaux also began to take classes at the Adelaide School of Design under Henry Pelham Gill, whose students included Margaret Preston and Hans Heysen.

In 1904, Cazneaux moved to Sydney and began work at his father's former studio, Freeman Brothers. He was never fulfilled by studio photographic work as he wished to use photography to express himself artistically and began to take photos around Sydney in his spare time. Cazneaux won several awards for his work, including first prize in 'A Kodak Happy Moment' competition in 1914. He produced a wide diversity of photographs ranging from portraits of well known people to landscapes, and images for books and magazines. In 1918 Cazneaux established his own business and quickly gained commissions. The following year he was engaged by Sydney Ure Smith the publisher of a new 'high-class social magazine the Home' (Cazneaux, 1978, p. ix). Cazneaux was innovative in his use of natural light and settings, his work had a freshness despite careful composition. Light and shadow played an important role in his work.

In 1934-35 Cazneaux was engaged by Broken Hill Proprietary Company to photograph company operations in New South Wales and South Australia. Industrial photography was an area Cazneaux had not done much of prior to this, but his instinctive work with sunshine and shadow gave the photographs an unusual brilliance. His human figures in these industrial landscapes are often dominated by the sheer size of the machinery but provide a dynamic interplay between man and machine.

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