This listing of the photographers and studios operating in Brisbane from 1855 to 1901, is an abridged version of the print publication 'Capturing Brisbane'.
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Nagel, Louis Arthur
Born in Victoria, Louis Nagel was working as a photographer in Sydney by 1883, probably for Tuttle & Co. He arrived in Brisbane in May 1887where he was joined in business by James Clune. They formed Nagel and Clune which operated from the corner of Ann and Brook Streets, Fortitude Valley. Nagel remained in the partnership until mid-1888, departing Brisbane with wife and child in July. Louis Nagel was a photographer in Victoria through the 1890s, before moving to Western Australia.
Nagel and Clune
A partnership between Louis Nagel and James Clune was formed around June 1887, based in Ann Street, Fortitude Valley. The company won the annual contract to photograph prisoners in the Brisbane Gaol in February 1888. The partners may have maintained an association with Tuttle & Co, though evidence is limited. The Nagel and Clune partnership presumably came to an end when Louis Nagel left Brisbane in July 1888.
New Photo Company
The New Photo Company was the name given to an additional gallery opened for the New South Wales Photographic Company in July 1892. It was located at 91 George Street, opposite Hicks’ Building. This site also operated a regular studio from which cabinet photographs could be purchased by the dozen at competitive prices. The company employed travelling photographers to work their way around the colony in 1893. In March 1893 another branch was opened at 52 Queen Street, Brisbane, and the George Street branch closed around April. The New Photo Company ceased to trade at the end of 1894.
New South Wales Photographic Company
Operated by Thurlow and Shephard from the corner of Sheriff Street and Petrie Terrace, this company was in business by July 1889. It was also known as the New South Wales Photographic and Fine Arts Company from as early as March 1890. While it had a shopfront, the business also relied on canvassers to produce orders for framed enlargements. A city branch of the business was opened in March 1893, and presumably to distinguish one from another, became known as the New Photo Company. Last recorded mention of the New South Wales Photographic and Fine Arts Company was in April 1895.
New South Wales Photographic and Fine Arts Company
See New South Wales Photographic Company
New York Photo Company
Established in September 1888 at the Free Mining Exchange building, 115 Queen Street, Brisbane, this company did not advertise its products. Its only advertisements were for men or boys to work on the door or to deliver posters. It appears to have closed around the end of October 1888, and its proprietors remain anonymous.
New York Photographic Studio
This company, which espoused ‘All the latest American Ideas’, offered cheap cabinet photographs and carte de visite, enlargements or copies and portraits coloured in oil or crayon. It opened in October 1891 at 91 George Street, Brisbane, opposite Hicks’s warehouse. The studio closed at the end of November 1891. There are no clues to its operators, who were likely travelling photographers.
Nineham, Albert Edward
English born Albert Nineham, sometimes recorded as Alfred, had found employment by 1881 as a photographic printer in Southampton, and after marrying in 1883 emigrated to Sydney. He was employed by Albert Lomer in Sydney and then moved in June 1884 to take up a position with the Brisbane branch of the firm. After more than nine years with Lomer in Brisbane, Albert Nineham ventured out on his own, opening the Brunswick Studio in Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley around September 1893. He operated the studio until the end of 1896, leaving Brisbane to open a new studio in Gladstone in January 1897.