Stanley W Eutrope elevating photography to an art form

Stanley W Eutrope, Australia 1891–1983/ Late afternoon in the dunes (Point Lookout, Stradbroke Island) c.1943 / Gelatin silver photograph on paper / Purchased 1984 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Stanley Eutrope Estate / View full image

Mon 27 Oct 2025

The early 20th century saw the rise of new styles of photography worldwide, which influenced photography in Queensland. Encouraged by advances in film development and camera production, camera clubs flourished.

Interest in artistic photography resulted in the formation of the Queensland Camera Club in Brisbane in 1922, with the opening of its first photographic 'salon' in 1924 at Kodak’s Queen Street premises.

Members explored the new soft-focus romantic style of pictorialist photography, taking their lead from the popular landscape tradition in Australian painting at the time.

Winter’s curtain c.1922

Passing clouds c.1923

Pastoral c.1925

Stanley W Eutrope

Stanley William Eutrope (1891–1983) was born in Melbourne and began exhibiting from 1917. He was invited to become a member of the Victorian Pictorial Workers Society and joined its counterpart, the Sydney Camera Circle when he moved to Sydney in 1920, before travelling north to Brisbane in 1929 to work for Harrington’s Pty Ltd, an importer of photographic goods that published a monthly photographic journal — the company was subsequently acquired by Kodak (Australasia), where he worked until his retirement in 1967.

In Brisbane he was an active member of the newly formed Queensland Camera Club, formed in 1922 to advance photography’s status as an artform, and was a judge of photographic exhibitions.

Eutrope was an expert at the bromoil photographic process, his work was noted for its decorative and graphic effects. The process combines photography, painting and printmaking, where a photograph’s silver image is removed and substituted with ink. Bromoils were favoured during the Pictorialist movement, elevating photography to an art form.

Members of the Sydney Camera Circle with Stanley W Eutrope seated far right, c.1924

Harold Cazneaux, 1878-1953, photographer / Members of the Sydney Camera Circle, Sydney c.1924 / Left to right at back: H. Bedggood, W.S. White and Cecil W. Bostock; Left to right on front: J.G. McCall, Henri Mallard and Stanley W Eutrope; W. Lamond standing and assisting with photographs on front / Sepia toned photograph / 10.2 x 16.2cm / 6808692 / Courtesy: National Library of Australia — Harold Cazneaux, 1878-1953, photographer / *Members of the Sydney Camera Circle, Sydney* c.1924 / Left to right at back: H. Bedggood, W.S. White and Cecil W. Bostock; Left to right on front: J.G. McCall, Henri Mallard and Stanley W Eutrope; W. Lamond standing and assisting with photographs on front / Sepia toned photograph / 10.2 x 16.2cm / 6808692 / Courtesy: National Library of Australia / View full image

Under the bridge (Grey Street Bridge, Brisbane) c.1933

The bridge approach (Grey Street Bridge, Brisbane) c.1935

Late afternoon in the dunes (Point Lookout, Stradbroke Island) c.1943

After summer rain c.1949

The guardian gum c.1953

Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s
16 August 2025 – 26 January 2026
Queensland Art Gallery
Brisbane, Australia
Free entry

View Under the bridge (Grey Street Bridge, Brisbane) c.1933; The bridge approach (Grey Street Bridge, Brisbane) c.1935; and Late afternoon in the dunes (Point Lookout, Stradbroke Island) c.1943 in 'Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s'