Grahame Garner
{{short description|Australian photographer and political activist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}}
Grahame Garner (1928{{ndash}}2015) was an Australian photographer and political activist for peace in Brisbane, Queensland.
Grahame John Garner was a marine engineer in the merchant navy during the 1940s and 1950s,{{Cite journal|last=Garner|first=Grahame and Riethmuller, Ted|date=2007|title=The Women's Movement of the 1960s: A Photo Essay|url=http://www.labourhistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/QJLH-No-05-Sept-2007-Final.pdf|journal=Queensland Journal of Labour History|volume=5|pages=39–46}} before becoming a fitter and turner for the Brisbane tramways.
Photographic career and political activism
Garner took up photography as a hobby forming a Tramways Photographic Society with colleague, Ross Callcott. Their photographs attracted the attention of the Queensland Police's Special Branch, as some of their photographs of Brisbane trams were sent to the Soviet Union as part of the Australian Soviet Friendship Society of which Garner was a member.{{Citation|title=The camera of Grahame Garner|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL9bgP0ckuE|language=en|access-date=2020-01-08}}{{Cite journal|last=Jiggens|first=John|date=2011|title=Eureka Australia Day Medals awarded to Garners|url=https://www.labourhistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/QJLH-No-12-March-2011-final.pdf|journal=Queensland Journal of Labour History|volume=12|pages=53–54}} He organised the last tram ride through Brisbane to celebrate the passing of the tram network.{{Cite web|url=http://radicaltimes.info/PDF/GrahameGarner.pdf|title=Grahame Garner|last=Riethmuller|first=Ted|date=2013|website=Radical Times}}
Garner was an active amateur photographer and amassed a huge collection of photographs of subjects ranging from his dogs, trams in Brisbane and political marches during the 1960s. He submitted photographs to the Queensland Guardian, the newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia. He took many photographs of the Vietnam Moratorium marches of Brisbane in 1970{{Cite web|url=http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/2019/03/21/remembering-the-revolution/|title=Remembering the Revolution {{!}} John Oxley Library|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-08}} and other student protests between 1963 and 1971.
He had an interest in ballet and took many photographs of the visiting Bolshoi Ballet and Moscow Circus in Brisbane, as well as over 900 photographs of the Lisner Ballet Academy, which would later become the Queensland Ballet.
After his retirement he moved to the Nambour area of Queensland where he continued his campaigns opposing high rise growth along the Sunshine Coast and stood for council election. His house and camera was destroyed by fire, although his photographic negative collection survived.
Many of these photographs are now held in the University of Queensland Fryer Library and National Library of Australia collections.{{Cite web|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-151075235|title=Grahame Garner collection of photographic negatives of the Lisner Ballet and Queensland Ballet, 1960-1968 [picture]|website=nla.gov.au|language=en|access-date=2020-01-08}}
He and his wife, Esme were awarded the Eureka Australia Day Award in 2011 for their lifelong political activity.{{Cite web|url=https://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2011/01/08/eureka-award-for-grahame-and-esme-garner/|title=Eureka Award for Grahame and Esme Garner|date=2011-01-08|website=Workers BushTelegraph|language=en|access-date=2020-01-08}}