1927 - 2003]
David Murray Moore was born in Sydney, the son of John D. Moore,
an architect and painter who contributed to the modern movement
in Australia. From school David Moore spent the final year of
World
War II in the Navy. During 1946 he worked on the land and then
in an architectural office where he prepared to follow his father’s
profession as an architect.
However, Moore discovered that his
youthful interest in photography was becoming his true vocation
and in 1947
joined Russell Roberts Pty Ltd to gain experience in commercial
photography. Moore found the studio work limited and artificial.
He approached
Max Dupain - whose work was more vigorous and naturalistic
- and was able to join the latter’s studio in 1948.
Moore
worked in Dupain’s studio until 1951 doing a variety
of commercial, architectural and industrial assignments. Out
of work hours he was photographing depressed areas in Sydney
in the
spirit
of the documentary movement in films which was a great influence
on still photographers in Sydney at the time.
At weekends Moore
went on photographic trips to rural areas, often in the company
of friend
and fellow photographer, David Potts.
In
1951 Moore was able to organise a working passage on the Orient
Line to England. He
hoped to travel on to Canada and seek work
in the stills department of the Canadian Film Board - then
one of the
most progressive exponents of the documentary approach to film
making.
Just prior to departure, Moore had been encouraged
by Fritz Goro,
who was in Australia on assignment for Life magazine, to try
to get work in London for Life and the American market.
On
arrival Moore
was able to sell picture stories of the turning around of
the Himalaya
in Sydney Harbour and received favourable comment on his
slum pictures. One of these, plate 90, was used in the “Family
of Man” exhibition
in 1955.
Gene Farmer, the bureau chief for Life in London.
later used some of Moore’s freelance stories in the “Speaking
of Pictures” section of Life, and gave him an assignment
as part of the Life team covering the Coronation.
Moore
eventually established himself as a photo-journalist and had work
published
in the major publications of the time:
The
Observer, Time, Life and Fortune.
He also spent a demanding
but instructive
period as an assistant to Arnold Newman who was on assignment
in London to cover the Parliament and the British Museum.
In 1953
Moore
held an exhibition of his work. “People in Pictures”,
in London.
In
1958 Moore decided to return to Australia with his wife Jennifer
and their first child. He hoped to specialise
in
the American
market especially for photo-stories on the Pacific and
Southeast Asia,
through his agency. Black Star, in New York.
He was well
established in London
and had been offered a position as picture editor for The
Observer, but recognised the time had come if he was ever
to live in
Australia permanently.
On his return Moore worked from
Max Dupain’s studio
for a time before establishing his own studio. A one-man
exhibition of his work was held in Sydney and Melbourne
in 1958 and 1959 called “Seven
Years A Stranger”
The
great era of photo-journalism for magazines was passing but Black
Star switched its attention
to corporate promotion
and
Moore spent
the next decade travelling all over the world, usually
on assignment for EXXON oil company.
In 1963 he again
worked for Time-Life
on a book on Australia and New Zealand. In 1977 his work
was published
in Finlandia Creates.
Moore
was involved with the establishment of the Australian Centre for
Photography in Sydney and had a one-man
show
there in 1976.
He concentrated more as the years went by on personal
exploration than
on the public issues of photojournalism.
above
text based on Gaël Newton's Silver & Grey
Angus and Roberston, Australia 1980