Crowd Source by Arthur K. Syer
Secret photos of 1880s Sydney are revealed in this exhibition which features some of the world’s earliest street photographs, capturing many previously unseen views of Sydney from the 1880s. Crowd Source presents over 50 rare snapshots of Sydneysiders and Sydney’s bustling streets secretly taken with the world’s first hand-held camera – branded the ‘Detective Camera’ – by amateur local photographer Arthur Syer. The State Library holds over 170 original Arthur Syer photographs – the most extensive collection of early Australian street photography known to exist.
When the hand-held camera was introduced in Australia in the mid-1880s “it became a craze much like the smart phone or selfie stick of today, with photographs for the first time being able to be taken quickly and unnoticed,” said Margot Riley, the exhibitions co-curator.
The camera resembled “a square case… disguised as a … shoeblack’s box, or even a book. The operator places it upon the ground, or under his arm, the pressure of the pneumatic ball opening or closing the hidden lens at the required moment.” (The Sydney Mail, 2 July 1881).
No skill was required to operate the Detective Camera, signalling the beginning of mass photography. It used dry plate negatives – commercialised by George Eastman of Kodak fame – which were available over the counter at photography shops where negatives could be taken for developing and printing.
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