David Moore (6 April 1927 – 23 January 2003) was an Australian photojournalist, historian of Australian photography, and initiator of the Australian Centre for Photography.
Early life and education
Moore was born in Vaucluse, Sydney, Australia, the younger brother of Tony, the two children of Casiphia Dorothy (née Morton) who died in 1931, and architect and artist John D. MooreSydney Morning Herald 12 August 1954, p.26 who on 23 June 1932 married their step-mother, the artist Gladys Mary (née Owen) OBESydney Morning Herald 31 March 1957, p.90 at St Michael's Anglican Church, Vaucluse.
Moore was educated (1933–39) at Tudor House primary school when, at age 11, he was given a Coronet box camera, before graduating to Kodak 1A folding camera, given to him by his father who inspired his son's interest in the medium when he brought home a book on the work of Edward Weston.Millar, D. (2003). Moore, David. Grove Art Online. Retrieved 15 Jan. 2021, from https://www-oxfordartonline-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000059419 With it he photographed a fellow student and future Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, sailing a toy yacht and as an illustration in the school's The Tudorian it was his first published work. He also used it to make a self-portrait aged 15, while undertaking his secondary studies at Geelong Grammar School 1939-1945.
During World War II Moore served in the Royal Australian Navy.
Career In 1947, having begun studies in architecture, Moore decided on a photography career, which he began in the advertising and illustration studio of Russell Roberts in Sydney. He joined the Institute of Photographic Illustrators formed in Sydney in 1947 as 'the first group of specialised cameramen [sic: Margaret Michaelis was the only woman member] to be organised as a society in this country'. Moore was amongst fifteen exhibitors, mostly Sydney professionals, in the first exhibition in 1949. He moved on to work with Max Dupain, whose work he respected as "clean...very informative, very strong, very emotional – a world away from the soggy pictorial stuff."Geraldine O'Brien, "Reflections of a darkroom rat", The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 June 1989, p.83 Working in Dupain's studio from 1948 until 1951 on architectural, commercial and industrial assignments, in his own time Moore made excursions to photograph the foreshores, harbour and city of Sydney, as well as making pictures its slums, on which Harold Cazneaux commented in Contemporary Photography,Harold Cazneaux, 'Print Analysis'; David Moore, Little Charlie, Contemporary Photography (May–June, July–August 1949), p.21. in the course of which he made the much-reproduced Redfern interior, of a family facing eviction. Moore's work started being exhibited and published, in 1948 when he was 21, with a double page spread in a 1950 Sunday supplement of the Sydney Morning Herald being devoted to his series on the preparation of an ocean liner for its return journey to the UK,The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 August 1950, supplement pps.4,5 and inclusion in a book Australian Photography.
Despite being offered a junior partnership with Dupain, Moore moved to London in 1951, where commissioned work appeared in the New York Times, Time, The Observer, Fortune, Life, Look and other publications and undertook commissions in the USA, Europe and in Africa, including accompanying the Royal Tour in Nigeria in 1956.The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 January 1956, p.51 Moore married Jennifer Flintoff in 1955.
The couple returned to Australia on RMS Orion, 2 August 1958,The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August 1958, p.104 the year of his father's death in December,"The death of John D. Moore", Sydney Morning Herald, 11 December 1958, p.7 in time for the opening of a solo exhibition of Moore's work at Macquarie Galleries,Sydney Morning Herald, 20 July 1958, p.99The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 August 1958, p.12 He contributed picture stories to local publications including Walkabout, but continued to be commissioned by,including National Geographic, as reported by Gavin Souter in "Shhh! Somebody's watching", The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 February 1966, p.6 and sell existing work to, American and British magazines, represented by the New York-based Black Star photo agency from 1958.
After the birth of twins in August 1960,’’The Sydney Morning Herald’’, 11 August 1960, p.34 Moore diversified the commercial applications of his photography; his semi-abstract murals depicting the four elements fire, earth, air and water decorated the dining room in the refurbishment of the Carlton-Rex Hotel in Sydney;Advertising feature, Sydney Morning Herald 27 September 1960, p.23 and large panels of Moore images were exhibited at the Australian stand at the Comptoir Suisse at the Palais de Beaulieu, in Lausanne, which was attended by an audience of over a million.The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 October 1960, p.41 He joined forces in establishing a studio in a North Shore terrace house at 100 Walker Street with designers Gordon Andrews and Harry Williamson, then at 7 Ridge Street. North Sydney in a building designed and then also occupied by architect Ian McKay. Thus they gained more exposure, sometimes working together on commissions such as the Tokyo Trade Fair, and the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia. in the estimation of historian Gavin Souter the group "helped change the creative climate in Australia."Gavin Souter, "The creative men get together", The Sydney Morning Herald 17 October 1966, p.6
Recognition Moore was early recognised as a significant practitioner. In a 1959 review his Slum Kids is favourably compared with his employer Dupain's Meat Queue in a review of a group show alongside Laurence Le Guay at David Jones Gallery."Laurence Le Guay, among others, represent[s] the usual kind of "unusual angle". The approach of David Moore in 'Slum Kids', with its greater range of greys, is much more sympathetic, even if it does not convey spontaneity and therefore veracity. 'The Human Document' loses its quality when it becomes posed as Max Dupain knew well when he photographed "The Meat Queue". The Sydney Morning Herald 28 March 1949, p.27
Another early image, also made while apprenticed to Dupain, of a struggling family in working class Redfern was included in Edward Steichen's major 1955 exhibition "The Family of Man", which originated at the Museum of Modern Art and toured the world."'Family of Man' photograph show", The Age, Monday, 16 February 1959, p.10The Age, Tuesday, February 24, 1959, p.3The Age, Monday, March 16, 1959, p.2The Age, Tuesday, March 17, 1959, p.2The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday, March 31, 1959, p.13The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, April 04, 1959, p.13 In a newspaper article Moore corrected the misinformation that he was the only Australian with work in the show–Laurence Le Guay had been miscredited by MoMA as being a New Guinea photographer.The Age, Monday 23 Feb 1959, p.2
Commentator Craig McGregor regarded Moore as amongst a few who had "made the crucial breakthrough in Australian photography".Craig McGregor, "They have begun to look deeply beneath the country's surface," The Sydney Morning Herald 1 June 1968, p.17 Photographs by him were purchased, with those of David Beal, Helmut Gritscher, Lance Nelson and Richard Woldendorp in 1969 for the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne through the Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd Fund. In December a group show of these works was held, the first representation of photography at the new National Gallery of Victoria quarters in St Kilda Road.Ann Galbally, The Age, 10 December 1969, p.2 Moore's 1966 photograph Migrants Arriving in Sydney, originating from a commission by National Geographic, is regarded as an iconic work of modern Australian photography."Unguarded moments" by Christopher Allen, The Australian (17 July 2010); colour image at the National Gallery of Australia. Moore made a black-and-white negative from the transparency for an exhibition in 1970; see "Public Works: Migrants Arriving ..." by Bronwyn Watson, The Australian (24 October 2009); black-and-white image, National Gallery of Victoria
Fine art photography Moore participated in, and judged, photographic exhibitions throughout his career. In the 1970s Moore developed non-commissioned works aimed at capturing what he called "the soft flow of time", as opposed to the "decisive moment" favoured by magazine editors. Much of such work by him was exhibited in commercial galleries.
Portraiture Throughout his career, Moore made portraits of significant Australians and international personalities, either in formal sittings or more often as part of his reportage, and many as part of his contribution to journalist and provocateur Craig McGregor's 1969 cultural survey In The Making.
In August 2001, Timothy Fairfax and Gordon Darling gave $44,000 to the National Portrait Gallery to purchase works for a substantial holding of Moore portraits, with the remainder donated by the artist himself. Darling said, ‘I have always admired David Moore's work and his ability to capture the moment with his photographs," while Simon Elliot elaborates on "Moore's skill as a portrait photographer and his love of the captured moment, accident and chance, combined with strong formal compositional devices."
Those of subjects held in the Australian National Portrait Gallery include; Peter Nicholson, Nelson Mandela, Henry Figueira, Ivan Carapina, Mick Jagger, Philip Noyce, Judy Davis, André Kertész, Max Dupain, William Dobell, Joshua Smith, Lloyd Rees, Robert Klippel, Yvonne Audette, Colin McCahon, Russell Drysdale, Peter Sculthorpe, Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan, Fred Williams,Craig McGregor, "The landscape painter who detests the bush", The Sydney Morning Herald 26 July 1969, p.18 Rudy Komon, Leonard French, Harry Seidler, Marea Gazzard, Les Blakebrough, Hal Porter, Patrick White, Bruce Dawe, Gordon Andrews, Colin Madigan, Robert Hughes, A D Hope, Wes Stacey, President Johnson and Prime Minister Holt at Canberra Airport, Averell Harriman, Robert Menzies, Anthony Eden, Georgi Malenkov, Ed Murrow, John Foster Dulles, Mary McCarthy, John Braine, Gilbert Murray, Lord Goddard, Chris Chataway, Henry Moore, George Johnston, Nicholas Hannen, Athene Seyler, Len Howard, Mick Scully, John Olsen, David Gulpilil, Janet Dawson, Kate Gollings, Allan Snyder, Fred Williams, Robert Helpmann, Dawn Fraser.
Contributions to the profession Moore promoted his profession and encouraged others, workers and amateurs, through his lectures,David Moore, "Shooting for Life magazine" for Australian institute of Photography, Carslaw Building, Sydney University, 13 November 1963, listed in The Sydney Morning Herald 8 November 1963, p.17 including at the YMCA Camera Circle,The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 August 1960, p.14 and his judging of competitions in Australia.’’The Sydney Morning Herald’’ 18 November 1960, p.18F.J. Halmarick, “15 experts did the judging”, ‘’The Sydney Morning Herald’’, 11 August 1961, p.11F. J. Halmarick, "Nature slide section for R.A.S. show", The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 October 1962, p.11Robin Gower Professional Photography Australia October 1991 p. 15Glenda Thompson - The Bulletin/Mumm Cordon Rouge Champagne Photographic Awards 1990 The Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Nov. 1990 p.94-98
He contributed energetically to research into historical Australian photography, making in 1976 an archive of gelatin silver prints from the collection of Henri Mallard's glass negatives that were published in association with Sun Books in 1978,Building the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Henri Mallard (photographer); introduced by Max Dupain and Howard Tanner. Melbourne, Sun Books in association with Australian Centre for Photography, 1976. and from 1979, researching Australian photography for a book Australia, Image of a Nation 1850-1950, that was published in October 1983.