May and Mina Moore - Misplaced Pages

New Zealand sisters and photographers

May Moore
Annie May Moore (1881-1931), by unknown photographer, 1900-15
Born	Annie May Moore 4 January 1881 Wainui, New Zealand
Died	10 June 1931(1931-06-10) (aged 50) Pittwater, New South Wales, Australia
Height	183 cm (6 ft 0 in)

Occupation	Photographer
Nationality	Australian
Spouse	Henry Hammon Wilkes

Mina Moore
Minnie Louise Moore (1882-1957), self-portrait
Born	Minnie Louise Moore 6 October 1882 Wainui, New Zealand
Died	30 January 1957(1957-01-30) (aged 74) Croydon, Victoria, Australia
Occupation	Photographer
Nationality	Australian
Spouse	William Tainsh

May and Mina Moore were New Zealand-born photographers who made careers as professional photographers, first in Wellington, New Zealand, and later in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. They are known for their Rembrandt-style portrait photography, and their subjects included famous artists, musicians, and writers of the era.

Early years and education

Annie May Moore (known as May) was born in Wainui, New Zealand, on 4 January 1881, and Minnie Louise Moore (known as Mina) was born the following year, on 6 October 1882. Their mother, Sarah Jane née Hellyer, was born in New Zealand, while their father, Robert Walter Moore, originally came from England. He was a farmer and sawyer.

May's talent for art was evident from early girlhood, and her mother encouraged her to study at the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, New Zealand. Sometime in 1906 – 07, May began to earn money from her work, selling ink and pencil sketches at the New Zealand International Exhibition (1906) in Christchurch.

In New Zealand

Mina, then a schoolteacher, began working with photography around 1907. Not long afterwards, the sisters decided to go into business as photographers, and they bought a studio in Wellington they called Rembrandt Studios and in 1908 they advertised photography and sketch work. Since they did not know how to run a photography studio, the sisters initially kept on the staff, who trained May in camera operations and Mina in printing.

The sisters gained a solid reputation around Wellington within a short time. They became known for close-up, side-lit portraits shot against a plain background, and they worked with both sepia toning and bromide paper.

Their services were sought after by visiting performers such as Lily Brayton and New Zealand performers like Mākereti Papakura.

In Australia

After only a few years, the sisters moved their business to Australia, running separate studios in Sydney (1910–28) and Melbourne (1913–1918). May in Sydney continued to focus on studio portraits, while Mina in Melbourne moved into theatrical photography and portraits of interview subjects. Nonetheless, they continued to often cosign the work produced by their respective studios. Their photographs were frequently published in magazines such as Home and Triad.

Their styles were very consistent, and they used dramatic lighting to get the effect of making the subject's face the centre of attention.

May in Sydney

In 1910, May took a holiday trip to Australia that resulted in her opening a new studio in Sydney. One of May's notable images from the Sydney period was a portrait of cartoonist Livingston Hopkins.

May began writing articles for the Austral-Briton in 1916. In articles like "Photography for Women", she encouraged more women to take up the medium. Her advocacy extended to her own business, where she mostly employed women. One exception to this rule was her husband, Henry Hammon Wilkes, a dentist whom she married on 13 July 1915 and who gave up his dental practice to help his wife with her photography business.

May was a member of the Lyceum Club, the Musical Association of New South Wales, the Society of Women Painters (Sydney), and the Professional Photographers' Association of Australia.

Around 1928, May was forced into retirement by illness and turned her creative energies to painting landscapes. She died of cancer in her Pittwater home on 10 June 1931; her remains are at the Manly Cemetery. Six months after her death the Lyceum Club mounted a memorial exhibition of her work.

Mina in Melbourne

In 1913, Mina joined May in Australia, setting up shop in the Auditorium Building on Collins Street in downtown Melbourne and specializing in theatrical photography. Mina also formed an alliance with a freelance journalist, agreeing to photograph whomever the journalist planned to interview. These images were typically taken during the interview itself, affording a better opportunity to capture a subject's natural expressions.

Mina married William Alexander Tainsh on 20 December 1916. When their daughter was born in 1918, Mina retired from professional photography. Her Auditorium Building studio was taken over by photographer Ruth Hollick. She came out of retirement briefly in 1927, when Shell commissioned her to do a series of portraits. At that point she was working out of a home darkroom and caring for an expanded family, so after the Shell series she decided against restarting her photography business.

Mina died in Croydon, Victoria on 30 January 1957. Her remains were cremated.

Portraits of the stars by May and Mina Moore

Enid Bennett
Eva Gauthier
Lilian Birtles
Sara Allgood
Eleanora de Cisneros

Images courtesy of May and Mina Moore Photography, State Library Victoria

References

^ Newton, Gael (1988). Shades of Light. Canberra: Australian National Gallery. p. 92. ISBN 0642081522.
^ Hall, Barbara. "Annie May Moore (1881–1931)". Annie May Moore/Minnie Louise Moore. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 3 April 2015. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
^ Hall, Barbara; Mather, Jenni (1986). Australian Women Photographers 1840-1960. Brisbane: Greenhouse. ISBN 0864360398.
^ Mitchell, Lissa (2023). Through shaded glass: women and photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860-1960. Wellington, New Zealand: Te Papa Press. pp. 90–95. ISBN 978-0-9951384-9-0. OCLC 1374563763.
^ O’Hehir, Anne (2010). "Actress Elizabeth 'Lily' Brayton [Mrs Oscar Asche] c.1916". National Gallery of Australia. Canberra. Retrieved 16 May 2016.

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