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CECIL.
W. BOSTOCK 1884-1939
2002: Art Gallery of New South Wales
The exhibition Soft Shadows and Sharp Lines: Australian Photography from Cazneaux to Dupain was held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in Sydney from September 30 to November 17, 2002*.
The exhibition was curated by Natasha Bullock. The exhibition explored the transition in Australian photography during the early-to-mid 20th century – tracing the movement from romantic Pictorialism (marked by the atmospheric, soft-focus pictorial aesthetics popularized by Harold Cazneaux and the Sydney Camera Circle) through to the sharp, geometric modernism championed by Max Dupain and the Contemporary Camera Groupe in the 1930s.
Cecil Bostock played a prominent role in this narrative. As a founding member of the Sydney Camera Circle (1916) alongside Harold Cazneaux, James S. Stening, and others, Bostock was a central figure in Australian Pictorialism.
Several of Bostock's works held in the AGNSW collection – including prints from his landmark 1917 bound portfolio
A portfolio of art photographs were included in the Soft Shadows and Sharp Lines exhibition. The exhibition highlighted Bostock's dual significance as both a key pictorialist craftsman and an influential mentor to Max Dupain (who worked as Bostock's apprentice from 1930 to 1933).
A companion catalogue/handbook authored by Natasha Bullock was published by the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Bullock, Natasha. (2002). Soft Shadows and Sharp Lines: Australian Photography from Cazneaux to Dupain. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales.
* There is another AGNSW with slightly different dates.
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more on the exhibition: (from an AGNSW archived web page)
Soft Shadows and Sharp Lines showcases aspects of the Art Gallery of New South Wales fine collection of early twentieth century Australian photography. The exhibition comprises work by some of Australia's most distinguished photographers including Harold Cazneaux, Max Dupain and Olive Cotton.
Soft Shadows and Sharp Lines explores the aesthetic shift from a pictorial style of image-making, demonstrated in the work of Harold Cazneaux, to the modernist compositions of artists such as Max Dupain. The shift from Pictorialism to Modernism was a significant aesthetic change to occur in International and Australian photography. Affectionately called at the time the fuzzy wuzzy style, Pictorialism was characterised by painterly attributes, soft hues and a pervasive sense of romanticism. Cazneaux's work, in particular, and that of some his peers in the Sydney Camera Circle, came to represent a transitional moment in Australian photographic history. The Circle attempted to capture the unique attributes of Australian light, doing away with the misty and atmospheric characteristics of their English Pictorial counterparts.
In Europe in the 1920s a fresh style of photography developed, referred to as New Photography, which focused on unusual angles, perspectives and sharp contrasting tones. The influence of this movement slowly filtered into Australia through magazines and exhibitions. Modernist photography relished in the specific and unique qualities a photographic image can afford, embracing the shape, form and spatial qualities of its chosen subject matter to great result. Max Dupain's Sunbaker, for instance, is a modernist icon that expressively demonstrates the characteristics of the style: sharp, defined shapes, an unusual vantage point (worms eye view), contrasting tonal scheme and a formal compositional arrangement.
Soft Shadows and Sharp Lines includes work by Harold Cazneaux, John Kauffmann, Cecil Bostock, Norman Deck, Henri Mallard, Max Dupain, F.A. Joyner, George Morris, Wolfgang Sievers, Laurence Collings, Hans Hasenpflug, Olive Cotton, Ruth Hollick and others.