Nicholas Caire

At a young age Caire developed his passion for his photography and, with encouragement from his parents, he pursued this goal his entire life. Caire never pursued any other career goals that didn't include photography. Shortly after, he moved to Australia he found his mentor, photographer Townsend Duryea. His work in 1865 consisted of him taking Wet plate images of the Indigenous Australians in Gippsland. Two years later in 1867 Caire opened his first studio in Adelaide, Australia. Three years later Caire moved to Talbot, Victoria. In 1876 he brought his second studio in Collins Street, Melbourne.

Until 1885, Caire specialized mostly in portrait photography, The development of the Dry Plate process in 1855 revolutionized what photographers could do with landscape photography. This caused him to leave the city and set up a new studio in South Yarra. At this point Caire decided to focus on outdoor photography, particularly the Australian landscape. His photography aided in helping the tourism around Gippsland, the place which one of his most popular bodies of work, Gippsland Scenery, was named, this body of work is believed to have contained roughly 60 images.{{cite journal|last1=Peck|first1=Julia|title=Performing Aboriginality: Desiring Pre-contact Aboriginality in Victoria, 1886–1901|journal=History of Photography|date=22 July 2010|volume=34|issue=3|pages=214–233|doi=10.1080/03087291003765802|s2cid=54517731|ref=4|url=http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/3277/4/Performing%20Aboriginality.pdf}} Then when Australia got access to x-ray photography, Caire would shoot X-Ray photography at the Melbourne General Hospital one day each week, he did this for free.{{cite web|last1=Mccarthy|first1=G.J.|title=Caire, Nicholas John|url=http://www.eoas.info/biogs/P000095b.htm|website=Encyclopedia of Australian Science|access-date=15 April 2015|ref=4}}

He would only work with what he considered to be perfect conditions, this meant he would only take one or maybe two images a day, but because of the image quality in the work he would produce he could sell his works for a very high price and in large quantities. His best known series documented the rewards and hardships in the daily life of the first settlers.

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|title=Photographs of settler life & south-eastern Victoria landscapes taken by N.J. Caire

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|footer=Images courtesy of [http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo-explore/search?query=creator,contains,Nicholas%20Caire,AND&tab=default_tab&search_scope=Everything&vid=MAIN&mode=advanced&offset=0 Pictures Collection], State Library Victoria

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|Down on his Luck

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|Bush Hut

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|Entrance to Werribee Gorge

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|Scene at Sunnyside, Warburton

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Caire currently still has 5 artworks on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.{{cite web|title=Works matching "Nicholas Caire|url=http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?q=Nicholas+Caire&on_display=y|website=Art Gallery of NSW|access-date=1 May 2015|ref=7}} With a previous exhibition being held at the same place consisting of 32 artworks on display, the exhibition was titled Nicholas Caire.{{cite web|title=Works Shown in the Exhibition 'Nicholas Caire'|url=http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?exhibition_id=1587|website=Art Gallery of NSW|access-date=1 May 2015|ref=8}} At his Calcutta Exhibition Caire was awarded a prize for his images of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens.

List of exhibitions

• Nicholas John Caire: photographer 1837–1918, at Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 1 November 1980 – 14 December 1980.
• Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition, at Exhibition Building, Melbourne, Victoria, 1888–1889.
• Calcutta International Exhibition, at Calcutta, India, 1883–1884
• Melbourne International Exhibition, at Exhibition Building, Melbourne, 1880–1881.
• Sydney International Exhibition, at Garden Palace, Sydney, 1879–1880{{cite web|title=Nicholas John Caire b. 1837 Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK|url=http://www.daao.org.au/bio/nicholas-john-caire/events/?|website=Design and Art Australia Online|access-date=1 May 2015|ref=9}}

Caire died on 13 February 1918. he was living in Armadale, Victoria, Australia at the time. He left behind many albums of his landscape work. A few of his negatives have been kept, unfortunately, most of his glass plates were cleaned off, to be used as glass for framing his pictures that he sold, because of the shortages in supplies during the First World War, framing was a major part of his business.{{cite web|last1=Crombie|first1=Isobel|title=Framing Nicholas Caire, Fairy scene at the Landslip, Black's Spur c. 1878|url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/framing-nicholas-caire-fairy-scene-at-the-landslip-blacks-spur-c-1878-2/|website=National Gallery of Victoria|access-date=1 May 2015|ref=6}} This included many of his ones used in his major folio Gippsland Scenery, which is his best known work. He was survived by his wife, Louisa Master, his two sons and his four daughters, to one of whom he left his two cameras.

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Category:Australian photographers

Category:1918 deaths

Category:1837 births

Category:Guernsey emigrants to Australia