Summary

This photograph features two staff from the Camera, Reels & Sundries Department in Building 15 at Kodak Australasia's Coburg factory, circa February 1974.

The staff are working on production of the new Pocket Instamatic camera. Operating the lens focusing equipment is Joy Nyssen, a Camera Assembler. Stan Keleher, the project engineer, is seen standing beside her. This photograph was published in the Australian Kodakery, Number 50, Feb / March 1974, page 5.

Pocket Instamatic cameras were officially launched in April 1973 in Australia, but dealers had been given an earlier preview with a small number available to sell for Christmas 1972. These cameras had already been released in the USA and Europe in 1972, but demand there was so high that the Australian sales launch was delayed. From 1974 the Kodak Pocket Instamatic 100, 200 and 300 camera models were assembled in Australia at the company's Coburg factory, from parts imported from Kodak Limited in England.

The camera section commenced operations in 1958 at Abbotsford with the production of the Brownie Flash II Camera. Operations moved to Coburg in 1961, and in 1963 production of the Instamatic range began. In the years to 1965 camera production progressed rapidly through a range of cameras to a daily output of over a thousand of the Instamatic range. Camera production ceased in 1981 when intense competition from Asian manufacturers made the operation unviable.

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

A woman is seated and looking through lens focusing equipment while a man is standing beside her holding a Kodak Instamatic camera.

Physical Description

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

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