[Woman in black dress, Sydney]

Albert Lomer ( - )

Commercial photographer, worked in Melbourne before 1865 when he opened a studio at Sydney in partnership with Andrew Chandler. They advertised as being from W. Davies & Co. of Melbourne, where both had presumably trained. Their studio, The London Photographic Company, was at 419 George Street, next door to Lassetter’s ironmongery store. By February 1867 Lomer was continuing alone but promising that 'the business will be conducted in the same efficient manner and under the same liberal principles as hitherto’. He had reduced the old price for cartes-de-visite to two for 5s or 15s a dozen and sold cabinet and other portrait photographs 'beautifully coloured (on the premises) in oil or water’. Lomer appears to have been his own colourist, regularly advertising as both 'artist and photographer’ (which this normally signified). In 1872-73 Lomer was working at 57 Bourke Street, Melbourne. He then established a very successful Brisbane studio at 158 Queen Street which lasted from 1874 until 1905, although he apparently no longer ran it after 1880. Branch studios were opened in various parts of the colony: the Lomer studio at Mackay in 1887 (managed by J.P. Kemp), a studio at Toowoomba (1893-96) and one at Ipswich (1898-99). Lomer was again in Sydney in 1880-95. In April 1881 Albert Lomer’s Parlour Studios at 805 George Street opposite the railway terminus,'The Really Popular (and Cheap) Photographer’, was selling cartes-de-visite for 7s 6d a dozen. He claimed that he was 'Especially esteemed for his portraits of Babies and Children’.

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Albumen Print (1850 - 1900)

Was a photograph made using albumen paper, popular for photographic printing between 1850 and 1900. Thin paper was coated with a layer of egg-white (albumen) containing salt and sensitised with a silver nitrate solution, then printed using daylight under a negative. The resulting paper had a smooth surface with a fine sheen. Albumen prints could be toned with a gold solution which gave a rich purplish-brown colour to the image and reduced the risk of fading. During the mid c.19th.

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Carte-de-visite ( 1854 - 1900) (1854 - 1900)

Were small cards, the size of a formal visiting card about 114mm x 63mm, with an albumen paper print photograph attached. They were invented in 1854 by A.A.E. Disderi. The backs of the cards were normally printed with the photographer's name, address and insignia.

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