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Sweet in Adelaide The first that we know of Sweet’s professional beginnings in Adelaide is that he formed a brief partnership with William Gibson. Their first Advertisement appeared in the Southern Australian Register on 21st November 1866: GIBSON & SWEET'S WAX VIEWS. Gentlemen's residences taken by their Wax Process. PICNICS and PARTIES accompanied, and photographed on the Ground. The above views to be had at Mr Wigg's, Rundle-street, where orders will be taken.
Photographers in Adelaide were already plentiful and included such well established names as the Duryea Brothers, Freeman & Belcher and Bernard Goode. Gibson and Sweet overcame the challenges facing a new business in an established market by using a well known agent (stationers and publishers Wigg & Sons) and by concentrating on out-door photography – an area in which few South Australian photographers excelled. They also wasted no time in taking photographs and sending them to the South Australian Register. Their miniature panorama of Adelaide and views of the Botanic Gardens were reviewed in the same edition of the Register which ran their first advertisement: With reference to an advertisement in our business columns we may mention that Messrs. Gibson & Sweet have sent to our office several photographs which undoubtedly possess much merit. One of them may be termed a miniature panorama of Adelaide, and there are five or six spirited views of the Botanic Garden. Sweet began advertising independently in 1867 but did not list a commercial address in the Adelaide directories until 1869 when he began working from 222 Rundle Street. In December 1867 Sweet entered photographs in the Society of Arts Exhibition in Adelaide where he ‘obtained the prize ... for the excellence of his out-door views taken by his new process’
REFERENCES: Philip Pike & Julian Moore, Captain Sweet's Adelaide, Longwood Media, Adelaide, 1983 Southern Australian Register, 21 November 1866 Adelaide City Council Archives, Corporation of the City of Adelaide (C40) Citizens’ Rolls (S55) Item 2 1868-69 Roll no. 1088 Advertisement, South Australian Almanac Advertiser, 1869 Bunyip, 04 January 1868 South Australian Register, 10 December 1867
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© Karen Magee 2008 - 2009 |
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