Summary

Black and white photographic portrait of Thomas Baker, 1926.

Thomas Baker was a significant figure in the foundation of the Australian photographic industry. In 1884, at thirty years of age, he established a highly successful photographic manufacturing business in Melbourne, which became Australia's biggest provider of photographic material before merging with Kodak in 1908. Baker remained closely involved with the new business, acting as joint Managing Director of Kodak until the end of his life. As successful entrepreneur and then company executive, Baker helped to influence how Australians engaged with photography in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century - a boom period when photography was becoming increasingly more popular and accessible to the ordinary person.

Kodak manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers, as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

This photograph is part of the Kodak collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005, when the Melbourne manufacturing plant at Coburg closed down.

Description of Content

Portrait of a man, focused on the head and shoulders. The man is angled to the camera, is wearing a three-piece suit and a bow tie. He has a goatee beard and moustache.

Physical Description

Black and white silver gelatin photograph printed on light weight paper, portrait format.

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