John Cyril "Jack" Cato, F.R.P.S. (4 April 1889 – 14 August 1971) was an Australian portrait photographer in the pictorialist style, operating in the first half of the twentieth century. He was the author of the first history of Australian photography; The Story of the Camera in Australia (1955)
Early life
John Cyril (Jack) Cato (1889–1971), photographer, was born on 4 April 1889 at Launceston, Tasmania, son of Albert Cox Cato, salesman, and his wife Caroline Louise, née Morgan. At the age of 12 years he did an apprenticeship, and studied arts in night school. His father arranged for him to have lessons from a friend who was a metallurgist at Queenstown, where he learnt the properties of metals in photography.Narkiewicz, Ewa (2000). 'Jack Cato's Melbourne: an interview with John Cato'. In La Trobe Journal. (65), 17–27. John Watt Beattie, a Scottish landscape photographer and also the son of a photographer, introduced young Jack to the medium in 1896. He was further trained in art by Lucien Dechaineux at Launceston Technical School. From 1901, Cato worked under Percy Whitelaw and John Andrew, both local portrait photographers.
Career
In 1906, aged 17, Cato joined Beattie in his Hobart premises and set up his own studio. Later he applied to be official photographer to (Sir) Douglas Mawson's 1911 Australasian Antarctic Expedition. However, Mawson passed him up, and Henri Mallard, in favour of Frank Hurley.Murphy, Shane & Hurley, Frank, 1885–1962 (2000). Shackleton's photographer: the annotated diaries of Frank Hurley, expedition photographer, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17 : a book (2nd electronic ed). Shane Murphy, Scottsdale, Arizona Cato travelled that year in Europe finding work with photographers in London, among them H. Walter Barnett, the fashionable society and vice-regal portraitist, and theatre photographer Claude Harris. Through the latter, and with encouragement from Dame Nellie Melba, he pursued freelance work in the theatrical world. Having contracted tuberculosis and, seeking the relief of a warm climate, Cato left England in 1914 to photograph on the expeditions in Rhodesia of Professor Cory of Grahamstown University. He enlisted for war service in South Africa."Mr Cato started by telling the members all about his experiences and engagements both in England and Africa and finally dealt with his tour right to Northern Rhodesia, made as photographer to Professor Cory, who has made a special study of the native races of the African continent." "Savage South Africa". (18 June 1923). The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania), p. 3 The anthropological photography earned him a fellowship (1917) of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.
In 1920, Cato, still convalescing, returned to Tasmania, where he operated his own portrait-studio in Hobart, and there married Mary Boote Pearce (d.1970) on 24 December 1921. He was President of the Tasmanian Photographers' Association in 1923."Hobart Photographic Exhibition}. (31 August 1923). The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania), p. 8. In 1926 their son John was born and in 1927 they moved to Melbourne."At their weekly gathering yesterday members of the Hobart Rotary Club bade farewell to Rotarian Jack Cato, the representative of. the photographic profession in the club, who is leaving Hobart for Melbourne and starting a new business there." Personal. (4 August 1927). The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania), p. 6. Again with the patronage"Hobart Artist Migrates. Mr. Jack Cato, recently of Hobart, commenced his Melbourne career by an amount of publicity many another artist might envy. Dame Melba came, made a speech, and posed for her photograph with a lovely bouquet, in the centre of which was an orchid, which won her admiration; helped to hand round tea, then told the scribblers anything they did not know about Mr. Cato, and left, only when satisfied that she had successfully launched her protégé. In her characteristic speech she said: "I was walking along the streets of Hobart when my attention was attracted by a window in which were some wonderful photographs. In my impertinent way I said, 'I must see into this.' I marched inside, and discovered Mr. Cato. There is always room in the world for great artists, and I regard Mr. Cato as a really great one." The dame then declared the exhibition of pictures, many of which have already appeared in "The Illustrated Tasmanian Mail", open." "The Mainland Day by Day". (7 October 1927). The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania), p. 8. of Dame Nellie Melba,"Dame Nellie Melba Opens Show". (7 October 1927). The Argus (Melbourne), p. 13. and through her introductions to society and to theatrical circles, he set up a society portrait studio, first at 244 Collins Street, then permanently in Marcus R. Barlow's (1930) Art Deco Howey HouseHowey Place Building. The building of Thos. Webb and Sons Pty. Ltd., in Howey place, and the adjoining building in Collins street, will soon be demolished, and a 12-story building (Howey Court) will be erectod on the site. Illustrated is the rear elevation (facing Howey place) of the proposed building. The architect of the building is Mr. Marcus R. Barlow. at 259 Collins Street.Van Wyk, Susan & Shmith, Michael & Whitfield, Danielle, (2006). The Paris End : Photography, Fashion & Glamour. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. p. 54 There, he was conveniently located for clients, close to Melbourne's photographic community and the best department stores and boutiques around Collins Street, Melbourne. He put his pictorialist style, natural gregariousness," 'Jack Cato is not only a brilliant photographer; he is a born raconteur.' 'The natives called him "Granddad-long-legs, The Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 27 December 1947: 2. love of theatre"He was also a singer, he loved the stage. I think that was more behind Jack Cato than anything: he was a performer, he loved performing, during the African years he was a member of a Pierrot troupe." Narkiewicz, Ewa (2000). "Jack Cato's Melbourne: an interview with John Cato", in La Trobe Journal (65), 17–27. and technical knowledge"Throughout the 1930s, and into the 1940s, he continued to use the stylistic conventions of pictorialism, particularly soft focus lenses, to create complimentary portraits. His custom built lenses enabled him to flatter his subjects. He explained [in Cato, Jack (1947). I Can Take It : The Autobiography of a Photographer. Georgian House, Melbourne, p. 205]: "I had a lens made in which the turn of a screw drew the two central lenses apart, giving a soft-focus diffused image, softening the features and all lines, giving soft edges to the hair and a blurring of all outlines. It was tremendously popular. The greater the age of the sitter, the more diffusion was needed to produce the desired result." Van Wyk, Susan & Shmith, Michael, Whitfield, Danielle & National Gallery of Victoria (2006). The Paris End : Photography, Fashion & Glamour. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. pp. 54–55 to effect in becoming a leader of the trade in Melbourne for two decades."Jack Cato, photographer and raconteur, who, not long ago, produced a most readable book of reminiscences..." Clive Turnbull, in "Portrait of a City". (15 October 1949). The Argus (Melbourne), p. 10.
His society, theatre and advertising photographs were frequently published in magazines and newspapers including The Australian Women's Weekly, The Argus, Table Talk,"Table Talk Annual". (30 October 1929). The Advertiser (Adelaide), p. 24. The Illustrated Tasmanian Mail,Peeps behind the scenes of the Melba-Williamson grand opera season are given in a special article by Mr. Jack Cato, F.R.P.S., in "The Illustrated Tasmanian Mail" this week. The Hobart Mercury, and The Australasian. He maintained links with professional associations and amateur clubs through occasional exhibitions of his best work,Arthur Streeton reviews "an exhibition of photographs by Mr. Jack Cato opened at the Athenaeum Gallery by the Prime Minister (Mr. Lyons)"; Art Photographs. (31 May 1932). The Argus (Melbourne), p. 8. and was senior vice-president (1938) and a life member of the Professional Photographers' Association.
Author Cato retired from his Melbourne studio in 1946 to begin a career as an author In addition to a large number of articles in photographic, philatelic and other magazines, as well as serving as chronicler for the Savage Club, he published an autobiography, I Can Take It (1947),"Reviewed: Tale of a Cameraman." (22 November 1947). The West Australian (Perth), p. 4"He Takes It!". (4 May 1951). The Argus (Melbourne), p. 10 supplement: The Argus Week-End Magazine. the writing of which he described in an article in the Australasian Photo-Review; So one night I sat down with a blank sheet of paper and scribbled a precis. It went something like this: —first beginnings with the wet-plate, when we sensitised all our materials from chemicals which we had to prepare ourselves. —coming of the dry-plate—my years as a landscape photographer climbing the mountains, trudging around the lakes and rivers of Tasmania. —my first studio in Hobart. Work in Paris. Excitements in Italy. A year with the camera through Europe. —five years in London. State and theatrical photography under the friendly patronage of Dame Nellie Melba, Covent Garden Opera, Caruso, Pavlova, Bernard Shaw, Marie Corelli, Churchill, etc., etc., etc. —next six years in Africa: hunting, scientific and geographic expeditions in the valley of the Zambesi. —return to Australia – twenty-five years portraiture, pictorial, commercial, architectural, medical – ballet, theatre, royalty, beggars, bishops, prime ministers, weddings, banquets, criminals, generals, corpses, millionaires, nudes, lunatics, models, artists. Faces repaired, ego's [sic] exalted. "Vanitas Vanitatum” Then I secured a lot more paper and began to fill in names and incidents...
Cato’s next book was a pictorial documentary, Melbourne (1949).reviewed by Clive Turnbull, in Portrait of a City. (15 October 1949). The Argus (Melbourne), p. 10. before he set out on producing a history of his medium.
The Story of the Camera in Australia
Cato's The Story of the Camera in Australia (1955), though it is more populist than academic,"If one leaves aside the glossy monographs on particular individuals or collections, the list of Australian photographic histories is short. Australia's first major national history of photography, Jack Cato's 1955 Story of the Camera in Australia was premised on the belief that photography 'as no other medium, literary or graphic', was best placed to record and reveal the history of the young nation. Cato's chronology favoured biography, technological developments, and professional genealogies and networks. His inadvertent nod to early historiographers Giorgio Vasari and perhaps Giovanni Morelli set the tone for numerous amateur histories." Sheehan, Tanya, (2015). Photography, History, Difference. Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College Press is acknowledged"It is unlikely that new research will alter substantially the outlines of the story which Cato set down, although these might be filled in by pursuing more material outside the Sydney-Melbourne axis." Humphrey McQueen in "The Story Behind the Lens". (5 November 1977). The Canberra Times, p. 12. as the first Australian national history of the medium,"In 1955 The Story of the Camera in Australia was published, the first historical survey of the field written by a former professional photographer-turned-historian, Jack Cato. Cato's book, published long before the institutionalisation of photography as an art form, was concerned with creating a lineage for professional photographers. Cochrane, P. (2001) Remarkable Occurrences: The National Library of Australia's First 100 Years, 1901–2001. Canberra: National Library of Australia and was premised on his belief that photography "as no other medium, literary or graphic", recorded and would reveal the history of the young nation.