Harold Cazneaux came to Australia from his native New Zealand at the age of 11. The family settled in Adelaide, where Harold began working as a retoucher in 1897. In 1904, he moved to Sydney; five years later he held his first solo photographic exhibition, which was also the first solo photographic exhibition in Australia. He was the leading photographer for the Home magazine from the early 1920s onward, and his photographs of Sydney over a number of decades have become key images of aspects of Australian history. The National Library of Australia has some two hundred Cazneaux photographs and the National Gallery of Australia has about twice that number.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Harold Cazneaux's portraits of influential Sydneysiders included Margaret Preston and Ethel Turner, both important figures in the development of ideas about Australian identity and culture.
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