Robert Vere Scott
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Robert Vere Scott (1877,
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
–c.1944 United States of America) was an Australian Pictorialist photographer known for his panoramic views. From 1918 he lived and worked in the United States, where he died sometime in the 1940s.


Biography

Robert Vere Scott was born in Brisbane in 1877, son of a Scottish immigrant storekeeper father and an Australian mother, the seventh of their ten children.Gael Newton, ‘Out of Sight’, in


Photographer

Based in Port Pirie, South Australia, Scott was working as a photographer when he married in Adelaide in 1899. The source of his training in the medium is not recorded. In 1900 he was listed as a professional in Broken Hill but signed his images in the negative 'R. Vere Scott’ and sometimes used ‘Very Scott’ as his surname, but also occasionally ‘R. Scott’ and ‘R. V. Scott’. After moving to America in 1918 he signed work "Rovere Scott."


Panoramic photographs

Scott's most important work was in the
panoramic A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word ...
format. Photo historian
Gael Newton Gael Lauraine Newton AM (1949– ) is an Australian art historian and curator specialising in surveys and studies of photography across the Asia-Pacific region. Newton was formerly curator of photography at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and ...
has determined from the 16.0 x 50.0 cm format of his photograph "Camels and men gather at the start of the expedition to survey the Trans-Australian Railway" that he was using a Kodak Panoram No. 4 camera released in 1899, or the No. 1 of 1900. These panoramic cameras used 120 roll film for ease of use and had a rotating lens and curved back and encompassed a view of between 112 and 142 degrees. Panoramic views of course had been produced in Australia since the late 1840s but these turn-of-the-century cameras made it possible to encompass the whole view in a sweep on one piece of film, rather than laboriously piecing together panoramas from a series of separate glass plates. The popularity of his pictures convinced him to specialise in this class of work. Significant contemporaries of Scott were also using this instrument; Richard T. Maurice (1859-1909), H.H. Tilbrook (1884-1937), and Harry Phillips (1873-1944).


Reputation

The arrival during a well-publicised visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1902 of the flamboyant American panoramic photographer
Melvin Vaniman Chester Melvin Vaniman (October 30, 1866 – July 2, 1912) was an American aviator and photographer who specialized in panoramic images. He shot images from gas balloons, ships masts, tall buildings and even a home-made pole. He scaled bui ...
(1866-1912) popularised the format in Australia. Significant in Scott's case, Vaniman was in Adelaide in 1904. From 1903 to 1907 Vere Scott continued to be based at Port Pirie, from where he explored markets further afield. For example, he produced panoramic pictures of
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, and of
Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...
,
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
and
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
(held by the
State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establis ...
) and dated around 1904. By 1907 Vere Scott had achieved a high profile in
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
. An article in ''The Adelaide Register'' of 19 December 1907 declared that Vere Scott had “‘recently imported the largest panoramic camera that had yet been brought to the Commonwealth, and that it was designed to take pictures 24 x 9 inches”. That camera may have been the more cumbersome Kodak Cirkut of 1904; a large format bellows camera that could be converted to make panoramas by mounting it on a clockwork turntable coupled to a spool of film that unrolled past a slit at the film plane, and was capable of 360º views with a resolution breathtaking even by current digital standards. Produced until 1949, it is used by some, even today. Scott was issuing panoramic postcards and in 1908, after a move to Western Australia, was invited to judge the
Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...
Technical School Camera Club competition. He embraced the
Pictorialist Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...
photography movement that was particularly advanced in Adelaide in these years due largely to its promotion by Adelaide-born art photographer John Kauffmann (1864-1942). That Vere Scott was regarded as an equal to Kauffmann is seen by their equal billing and high profile in the Christmas number of the Adelaide newspaper ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
''. Beyond the traditional topographical factuality of his city views, the influence of this style is evident in Scott's exposure, printing and retouching (usually in skies) for chiaroscuro effects in his views, some being made to look as if taken by moonlight. Around 1907 Vere Scott moved to
Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...
, Western Australia and the prosperity of its new gold mining operations, where he was active in covering sports and other local events for the ''
Kalgoorlie Western Argus The ''Western Argus'' was a newspaper published in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Nort ...
'' and covered mining activities for a long article in ''The Lone Hand''. He was soon travelling again: images of
Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...
and
Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...
are dated 1910–14, and a
Brisbane River The Brisbane River (Turrbal language, Turrbal: ) is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia. It flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the ...
view to 1915. A number of his images appeared in E.J.Brady's 1918 book '' Australia Unlimited''.


San Francisco

In 1916 Scott migrated with his wife and children to California where his brothers George, Henry and Alfred had already settled. He set up a studio at 340
Kearny Street Kearny Street () in San Francisco, California runs north from Market Street to The Embarcadero. Toward its south end, it separates the Financial District from the Union Square and Chinatown districts. Further north, it passes over Telegra ...
,
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
in 1918, and lived in Berkeley. By 1920 he had moved to 21
Stockton Street Stockton Street is a north-south street in San Francisco. It begins at Market Street passing Union Square, a major shopping district in the city. It then runs underground for about two and a half blocks in Stockton Street Tunnel (lending its ...
, near Geary, San Francisco, where he was advertising prints for 50 cents each. He contributed panoramic and other imagery of nautical activities on
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...
to yachting and boating magazines, and his pictures, examples of which he donated to the California Historical Society in 1936, provide a valuable record of the landscape of the city. He was a member of the Seattle Camera Club probably through correspondence and contribution of photos for exhibits, and was producing panoramic views well into the 1930s. His residence is listed as Boston and occupation "scenic photographer" on his
WW2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising ...
draft registration card of April 1942.


Personal life

Scott's American draft registration card in
WWI World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...
of September 12, 1918, records "Robert Scott, photographer, resident of 594, 62nd Street, Oakland, Alameda County, CA.," as "Tall Height, Medium Build, Blue Eyes, and Brown Hair, 3 Fingers from left hand lost, physically disqualified." He separated from his wife in 1920 and in 1924 briefly returned to Sydney where another brother James lived, then returned to San Francisco in September 1924, after which no securely dated images from Australia in the 1920s have been located. Scott may have married again in the USA around 1928. He died in 1944.


Collections

Some fifty works are held in Australian public and private collections: * National Gallery of Australia *Queensland Gallery of Art * State Library of New South Wales * State Library of Victoria *
Castlemaine Art Museum Castlemaine Art Museum is an art gallery and museum in Castlemaine, Victoria, Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1913, it is housed in a purpose-built Art Deco building, completed in 1931 and heritage-listed by the National Trust. Its ...
Castlemaine Art Museum Annual Report 2019-2020
/ref> The fate of the Scott archive is unknown, and none of his negatives are known to have survived.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Robert Vere Australian photographers Landscape photographers 1877 births Culture of Adelaide Photography in Australia Panoramic art Date of death unknown Immigrants to the United States