The first professional photographers were well ahead of their time even using the clumsy and painfully slow wet-plate method, they set about creating a marvelous gallery of portraits and scenes. They caught the picturesque, raffish, ponderous and pioneering spirit of the period in a remarkable fashion just as the character and enthusiasm of the golden days were beginning to vanish.
Gold Escort Leaving Bayley Street, Coolgardie – 1892, Hemus and Hall is next to the Union Bank.
They ranged over the life of Coolgardie and left behind the most exiting period collection of – groups of miners, crowded streets, horses drays and camel trains toiling through the dust and mud, tradesmen at work and families in their tents and galvanised cottages.
Before the great fire in 1895, they salvaged what they could from their burning premises and took the only know picture of the fire and its aftermath.
The Great Fire by Hemus and Hall
The Great Fire by Hemus and Hall -the aftermath
They were later to re open the premises on the south side of Bayley Street. It appears from their collection that they set up their tripod wherever there was a chance of taking a picture.
Western Australia can never repay the debt to Hemus and Hall for the perfection of their recording and portrayal of life on the Western Australian Goldfields. Much has changed over the years but for them so much would have been forgotten.
James William Hemus (born 1860, Warwickshire, England) operated at the ‘San Francisco Palace of Art’ in George Street, Sydney around 1884-85 with fellow photographer, William True Bennett. By 1885 he was working with another photographer, Godfrey, before heading down to Melbourne where he was contacted by Bennett in November 1890, offering him a position in Perth, Western Australia. They opened a Tuttle & Co. studio in Hay Street, Perth.
The duo soon fell out with James Hemus taking Bennett to court in January 1891, for unpaid wages in the amount of £13 5s 8d, Bennett counter-claimed that Hemus was just a servant and had deserted his service.
Newman Hall of Hemus and Hall Photographers:
That same month he formed a partnership with another Tuttle co-worker, Newman Hall, under the name Hemus & Hall, taking over the William Street photographic studio of James Manning. Hall was also from New Zealand as was Hemus. Hall had captured a number of NZ landscapes which were later shown in Perth. James advertised the new studio with having the latest Melbourne novelties.
By March 1895 they had moved to Bayley Street, Coolgardie, no doubt to take advantage of the gold rush citizens. Coincidentally their ex-employer, William Bennett had a Tuttle & Co studio in the same street. It’s unknown if they’d made up by then, but it seems likely.
Hemus & Hall traded here until 1906, although James may have left as early as 1898 and gone back to Auckland, with Hall continuing the name.
New Zealand was where his family had immigrated to from England and James’ brother Charles, had a long running photographic business there and he may have gone back to work for him. – James Hemus died in 1936.
Newman Hall left Coolgardie in June 1906.
Ref: A History of WA Photography
Moya Sharp
Latest posts by Moya Sharp (see all)
- My Country by Dorothy MacKellar - 20/04/2024
- Dewsnap Family Bakery – Coolgardie - 20/04/2024
- Early Mining and a Modern Problem by Doug Daws - 20/04/2024
Leave a Reply