James Austin | |
|---|---|
 Photograph by Pauline Austin | |
| Born | 4 June 1940 Melbourne, Australia |
| Alma mater | Lycée Lakanal, Paris; Manchester Grammar School; Jesus College, Cambridge; Courtauld Institute, [1] |
| Occupation | Fine-art and architectural photographer |
| Spouse(s) | Pauline Jeannette (née Aten) [1] |
James Austin (born 4 June 1940) is an Australian fine-art and architectural photographer.
James Lucien Ashurst Austin was born in Melbourne, Australia, the eldest son of Lloyd James Austin (1915–1994) and of Jeanne-Françoise (née Guérin). [2] He is the older brother of the late Colin Austin (1941–2010), the scholar of ancient Greek. [3] After studying architecture and fine art at Jesus College, Cambridge, he continued his education at the Courtauld Institute, London. [4]
He then travelled widely in France and Italy as a freelance photographer building up a library of photographs now in use worldwide in art history archives and numerous publications. Among his early clients were the Bollingen Foundation in New York and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, for whom he provided photographs for twenty volumes of the Buildings of England series. [1] [5] He was Ben Nicholson's personal photographer for the last ten years of the painter's life. [1]
He went back to work at the Courtauld Institute for twelve years, travelling extensively around Europe to photograph historic architecture and sculpture for the Conway Library at the Courtauld. [6] On his retirement he transferred his collection of negatives of architectural and sculptural subjects to the Conway Library whose archive of photographs is in the process of being digitised as part of the Courtauld Connects project. [7]
He returned to freelance work in 1985, when he was commissioned to take all the photographs for the catalogue of the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection. His career broadened to encompass the photography of fine art. He worked for the National Trust, English Heritage, the Crafts Council, the Tate Gallery, Kettle's Yard in Cambridge and numerous other institutions, architects, artists, craftsmen and collectors. [1] [4] He continued working for the Sainsbury collection – on several exhibition catalogues and photographing new acquisitions – right up to his retirement in April 2004, keeping a studio and darkroom at Wysing Arts Centre from 1997 until then.
The book Antique Woodworking Tools , in which James Austin published more than 1,500 illustrations, clearly demonstrates his skill in photographing small objects in the round. Mark Bridge pinpointed this in his review of the book in Antiques Trade Gazette when he wrote: "[James Austin] has managed to capture the elusive qualities of balance, texture and patina which make the finest tools a pleasure to handle, frequently lifting them into the realm of folk art". [9]
Photographs by Austin are held by many institutions. As well as those listed in the section headed 'External links' below and the Conway Library, the Getty Research Institute [10] purchased 10,000 of his images as a source of reliable research material [11] and Yale University holds the James Austin Photograph Collection of French and Italian Medieval Architecture. [12]
Wingfield Barns Arts Centre, Eye, Suffolk: solo exhibition of specially commissioned photographs, summer 2002
James Austin was a Fellow of the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) from 1977 to 1991.
Books for which James Austin did all, most or many of the photographs:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)| General | |
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| National libraries | |
| Art research institutes | |
A hand tool is any tool that is powered by hand rather than a motor. Categories of hand tools include wrenches, pliers, cutters, files, striking tools, struck or hammered tools, screwdrivers, vises, clamps, snips, hacksaws, drills, and knives.
Sir John Newenham Summerson was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century.
A brace is a hand tool used with a bit to drill holes, usually in wood. Pressure is applied to the top and the tool is rotated with a U-shaped grip. Bits used come in a variety of types but the more commonly used Ridgeway- and Irwin- pattern bits also rely on a snail point, which is a tapered screw point shaped the same as a wood screw thread, which helps to pull the bit into the wood as the user turns the brace handle and applies pressure
Antonio Beato (1835–1906), also known as Antoine Beato, was an Italian-British photographer. He is noted for his genre works, portraits, views of the architecture and landscapes of Egypt and other locations in the Mediterranean region. He was the younger brother of photographer Felice Beato (1832–1909), with whom he sometimes worked. Antonio and his brother were part of a small group of commercial photographers who were the first to produce images of the Orient on a large scale.
Although an antique tool might be said to be one that is more than a hundred years old, the term is often used to describe any old tool of quality that might be deemed collectable.
Sir Nicholas Beaver Penny is a British art historian. From 2008 to 2015 he was director of the National Gallery in London.
The Holtzapffel dynasty of tool and lathe makers was founded in Long Acre, London by a Strasbourg-born turner, Jean-Jacques Holtzapffel, in 1794. The firm specialized in lathes for ornamental turning but also made a name for its high-quality edge and boring tools.
Henry Weekes was an English sculptor, best known for his portraiture. He was among the most successful British sculptors of the mid-Victorian period.
Edward Preston & Sons is a tool manufacturer based in Birmingham, England.
Peter Erik Lasko was a British art historian, Professor of Visual Art at the University of East Anglia, from 1965 to 1974, Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, from 1974–85 and a Fellow of the British Academy.
David R. Russell was a builder who for many years collected antique woodworking tools.
John Adamson is a British publisher, translator and writer. He specialises in illustrated books in the fine and decorative arts.
The firm of Alexander Mathieson & Sons was one of the leading makers of hand tools in Scotland. Its success went hand in hand with the growth of the shipbuilding industries on the Firth of Clyde in the nineteenth century and the emergence of Glasgow as the "second city of the Empire". It also reflected the firm's skill in responding to an unprecedented demand for quality tools by shipyards, cooperages and other industries, both locally and far and wide.
The firm of T. Norris & Son was one of the most prestigious makers of hand tools in England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and famed for the quality and gracefulness of its output, notably of its metal planes. Both wooden and metal planes made in Norris's workshop survive as do other edge tools. Some Norris planes, especially bespoke models, are highly prized by woodworkers and collectors.
Kerry John Downes was an English architectural historian whose speciality was English Baroque architecture. He was Professor of History of Art, University of Reading, 1978–91, then Emeritus.
Antique Woodworking Tools: Their Craftsmanship from Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century is David Russell's account of the history of woodworking tools illustrated profusely with items from his extensive collection of British, continental European and North American hand tools. Planes are given special attention and British makers, among them Holtzapffel, Norris, Mathieson and Spiers, are discussed in depth.
A. C. Cooper is a British photographic company specialising in product, fine art and portrait photography established by the photographer Augustus Charles Cooper in 1918. The company was established at premises on Sandringham Park Road, West Hendon, London.
Ernest Arthur Gardner was an English writer, art historian and photographer with a particular focus on medieval sculpture and architecture.
Lucy Wallace Porter, also known as Lucy Bryant Wallace, was an American photographer. In 1912 she married the Harvard medievalist, Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883–1933). His published works included Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads and Spanish Romanesque Sculpture. He is known to have been an innovative “scholar-photographer” though later critical studies have shown that Wallace Porter was the principal photographer who accompanied him on his travels from 1919 onwards.
David Edward Hemsoll FSA is a British art and architectural historian, specialising in Renaissance art and architecture, especially that of Rome, Florence, and Venice. He has published numerous catalogue essays and books that address architectural theory and the methodology of architectural design. He is currently (2020) Senior Lecturer in the Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies at the University of Birmingham.
