Olive Cotton (July 11, 1911 - September 27, 2003) was a pioneering Australian modernist pioneering Australian photographer in the 1930s and 1940s working in Sydney. Cotton became a national "name" with a retrospective exhibit and tour 50 years later in 1985. A book about his life and work, published by the National Library of Australia, came out in 1995. Olive Cotton captured his childhood friend Max Dupain from the sidelines in a photo shoot , such as "Mode shot, Cronulla Sandhills, circa 1937" and made several portraits of him. Dupain was Cotton's first husband.
Video Olive Cotton
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Olive Edith Cotton was born on July 11, 1911, the eldest child in a family of artistic intellectuals. Her parents, Leo and Florence (nÃÆ' Â © e Channon) provide background music along with political and social awareness. His mother was a painter and pianist while Leo was a geologist, who photographed Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica in 1907. The Cottons and their five children live on the outskirts of Hornsby just north of Sydney. An uncle, Frank Cotton is a professor of physiology and his grandfather, also Frank Cotton, is a Member of Parliament in the first Labor Caucus.
Given Kodak No.0 Box Brownie's camera at the age of 11, Cotton with the help of his father made the house washing into a dark room "with a magnifying attached to the ironing light". Here Cotton processed the film and printed his first black and white image. While on vacation with his family in Newport Beach in 1924, Cotton met Max Dupain and they became friends, sharing his passion for photography. The photo of "She-oaks" (1928) was taken at Tanjung Bungan in this period.
Cotton attended Methodist Ladies' College, Burwood in Sydney from 1921 to 1929, obtained a scholarship and proceeded to complete B.A. at the University of Sydney in 1933, majoring in English and Mathematics; he also studied music and accomplished pianist with special fondness for Chopin Nocturnes.
Maps Olive Cotton
Photography
Cotton joins the Sydney Camera Circle and the New South Wales Photography Society, getting instructions and encouragement from important photographers like Harold Cazneaux.
He showed off his first photo, "Dusk", at the 1932 Interstate Photographic Society Exhibition. He quite often exhibited, his photography was personal in feelings with respect to the quality of certain light around him. After university he pursued photography by joining Dupain in his new studio, 24 Bond Street, Sydney. His contemporaries included Damien Parer, Geoff Powell, model Jean Lorraine and photographer Olga Sharpe, who frequented the studio.
In Australia during the 1930s clients assumed a man would become a photographer. Cotton sadly calls himself an "assistant". But whenever possible, Cotton takes pictures of celebrities or interesting objects in the studio, even catching Dupain working on his part, "Fashion Shot, Cronulla Sandhills, circa 1937" and making a portrait of him. The Sydney publisher Ure Smith gave him many commissions, and regarded him as one of the best photographers of the 1930s and 1940s.
During the 1930s Cotton developed mastery using the popular 'Pictorial' photography style at the time and also incorporated a very modern style approach.
The Commonwealth Bank staff magazine Bank Notes features more non-commercial Cotton photos as an illustration.
Signature photos
Ballet tea cup (1935) was photographed in the studio after Cotton bought some cheap porcelain items from Woolworth to replace the old studio's wares. In it he uses backlighting techniques to throw a thick shadow toward viewers to express the dance theme between the shape of the teacups, their plates and their shadows. It was exhibited locally at the time and at the London Salon of Photography in 1935. It has become Cotton's signature image and was recognized on the stamp commemorating 150 years of photography in Australia in 1991. Tea cup ballet features in the cover of Olive Cotton: Photographer book published by the National Library of Australia in 1995.
Shasta Aisies (1937) and the Budapest String Quartet (circa 1937) were included in the 1937 Victorian Salon of Photography exhibition.
In 1939 Olive Cotton married his old friend, Max Dupain. They split in 1941 and divorced in 1944.
Cotton received many commissions in 1945, including winter photos and spring flowers for the book Helen Blaxland Flowerpieces , which also included some pictures by Dupain. Sydney Ure Smith is an advocate of his work, and he commits numerous commissions for various art publications.
In mid-1947, Cotton went to live in a 35km shrub from Cowra, New South Wales, with her new husband, Ross McInerney. They lived in a tent for the first three years, then moved to a small farm where their two children grew up. He taught Mathematics at Cowra High School for five years until 1964 when he opened a small photographic studio in town, took many portraits, wedding photos, etc., for people in the surrounding district, where his work became famous and highly appreciated, though he has not known in post-war city art scene until 1985.
Exhibition
Among other things, his work is displayed in the following exhibition
- 1938 Warning Photography Warning organized by the NSW Photography Society as part of Australia's 150th anniversary celebrations.
- 1938 Group show with Contemporary Camera Groupe at David Jones Gallery, Sydney.
- 1981 An Australian Women's photography exhibition 1890-1950 , hosted by Jenni Mather, Christine Gillespie, and Barbara Hall.
- 1985 Olive Cotton Photographs 1924-1984 The retrospective was held at the Australian Photography Center, Sydney, toured many regional galleries in NSW, Victoria and Queensland throughout 1986.
Death
Olive Cotton died on September 28, 2003, 92 years old.
Collection
- The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
- New South Wales Art Gallery, Sydney
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Waverley City Council Collection, Melbourne
- Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
References
- Other sources:
- Olive Cotton: Photographer , an introduction by Helen Ennis, National Library of Australia, 1995
- Olive Cotton: Photos , catalog of exhibits, Gallery of Australian Women, Kingston ACT, 1992
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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