QVMAG to open H.J. King Cameras & carburettas
Image: H J King Collection, QVM:2014:P:4214. Stereographic photograph (detail) of HJ King with two Indian Motorcycles on a trip to Cradle Mountain, 1921.
H J King: Cameras and carburettors, Art Collector, June 2023
August 27, 2022 – August 27, 2023, at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.
Although H J King‘s photographs are more commonly seen than you might realise, the photographer himself is less well-known. In this exhibition, we explore the man behind the camera, who was H J King?
Herbert John (‘H.J.’) King (1892–1973) ran a bicycle and motorcycle shop with his family in Launceston and used motorcycles, cars, and aircraft to reach many inaccessible parts of Tasmania.
He was an extremely talented amateur photographer and used his photographs to document his outdoor explorations. He experimented with photographic processes, won prizes for his black-and-white photographs, and took some of the earliest Australian examples of civilian aerial photography.