Summary

Black and white 5" x 4" negative showing a group of male and female food processing workers boning and packaging meat products at an abbattoir in 1974.

This image is part of the Laurie Richards Collection at Museum Victoria comprising approximately 85,000 negatives taken by the Melbourne based Laurie Richards Studio between the 1950s -1970s. These negatives are all mostly large format [5"x 4"/ 12.5 x 10 cm], black and white images, though a significant number are in colour. The many photographic jobs that were undertaken in the course of thirty years are itemised in a set of log books, copies of which are also held by Museum Victoria.

Laurie Richards was a professional photographer who began his career as a photo-journalist, working for the Advertiser newspaper in Adelaide, and the Argus and the Herald newspapers in Melbourne. In 1953, he opened his own business and set up a photographic studio at his home at 4 Tower Avenue, Alphington, an inner suburb of Melbourne. At its peak, in the late 1960s, the Laurie Richards Studio was one of Melbourne's pre-eminent commercial photographic studios, employing twelve photographers. The Laurie Richards Studio worked mainly in advertising and public relations, and had a broad clientele which included commercial companies, government institutions and the entertainment industry.

Description of Content

Processing workers boning and packaging meat products at an abbattoir. The workspace is brightly lit, and contains gleaming metal work equipment. A conveyor belt is in the foreground, transporting boxes of 'boneless beef'. In the middle of the space, large carcasses are hanging from a motorised structure, at which workers are standing and boning meat. On both sides of this structure, workers stand either side of long conveyer belts, packaging meat. Meat sits around the work space - in a wheelbarrow next to the motorised structure, on the floor, in chutes along the floor, and in containers on racking, next to the workers.

Physical Description

Black and white 5" x 4" cellullose acetate negative.

Significance

Because of the breadth of both the subject matter photographed and the diverse businesses which commissioned the work, and the excellent documentation that accompanies the collection, the Laurie Richards Collection at Museum Victoria is an invaluable record of Melbourne's commercial and industrial past and as such gives an insight into the social history of that period.

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