Henry Talbot, born Heinz Tichauer (6 January 1920, Germany – 1999) was a German-Australian fashion photographer noted for his long association with the Australian fashion industry, particularly the Australian Wool Board.[1]
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Born in Germany to Jewish parents, he studied graphic design at the Reimann School in Berlin. Henry first travelled to London, England under pressure from rising tensions. There he worked as a window-dresser at a department store. After the 'Kristallnacht', Henry's father Max was detained, but having won the Iron Cross in WWI, Max was released, and subsequently Max and his wife fled to Bolivia.[2]
In England, Henry was interned as a German National by two plain-clothes policemen and later shipped to Australia on the Dunera. During his internment in Hay in New South Wales, Henry practiced his artwork and studied in the camp 'university' established by the internees.[3]
Upon release in 1942, Henry joined the Australian Army, in which he served until 1946, loading and unloading goods trains at the New South Wales / Queensland border, where he established a close personal friendship with fellow German refugee Helmut Newton. After the War Henry refreshed his studies of graphic design at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Henry then visited his parents in Cochabamba, Bolivia, practicing art and reviving his pre-war interest in photography, winning a local photography prize.[2]
Returning to Australia in 1950 he worked as a photographer, setting up a studio in 1956 with Helmut Newton.[4] The studio specialised in fashion and advertising. During this time, Helmut declared to Henry that he was "going to move to Europe and become the greatest photographer in the world", and asked Henry if he would look after the studio in his absence. Henry agreed, and as Helmut established himself in Europe, Henry took over the business.[5]
Talbot photographed various Australian Olympic figures, including gold medallist Dawn Fraser, who was shot in the Olympic pool in Melbourne during 1956, Franz Stampfel, who he knew through the Hay internment and who trained John Bannister[6], and Gael Newton. Other famous Australian models included Penny Pardey and Judy O'Connell, house models for Pierre Cardin, in 1967. During this period he did work for the Australian Wool Board, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Kent Cigarettes and General Motors, among other brands.[2]
Henry became Head of the Photography Department at the School of Art and Design at Preston (later Phillip) Institute of Technology, Melbourne (1973–1985).[2]
He moved to Sydney with his wife (Lynette) and sons (Neale and John-Paul), in 1985.[2]
Talbot's later projects included studies of the nude, portraits of prominent Australian Jews (including modernist architect Harry Seidler) and revisiting the sites of the Holtermann photographs taken at and around the historic township of Hill End, located in the gold fields district of New South Wales.[2]
Henry Talbot passed away in 1999 from cancer, shortly after revisiting the places of his youth in Europe.[2] Shortly after his death, the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) instituted the Henry Talbot Award for Services to the Photographic Industry.[7]