Curio

Soldier’s goodbye and Bobbie the cat, Kensington, 8 March 1941

Photoprint

PXE 789 vol 4 n 73

Sam Hood’s cheeky image of Bobbie the cat below the embracing couple is the second most popular of the State Library’s photographs on Flickr. September 30 is the seventh anniversary of Flickr – the key goal of this website is to share the world’s public photographic archives. The State Library of NSW joined Flickr at its inception in 2008 and currently has 2514 photos uploaded and 27.2k followers.

Samuel J Hood (1872-1953)

By Alan Davies, Sydney exposures: through the eyes of Sam Hood & his Studio, 1925-1950, 1991

Samuel J Hood (1872-1953) began his career as a photographer in the 1880s. He ran a successful business in ships portraits (these negatives are now held by the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney) and portraits of people in the late nineteenth - early twentieth century. The State Library has little representation of this period. In 1918 he acquired the Dalny Studio at 124 Pitt Street, and began to expand his business into press photography, providing photographs for the Sydney Mail, the Australasian, the Daily Guardian, the Daily Telegraph Pictorial, the Labor Daily, the Sun, the Daily News and the Sydney Morning Herald. Press photography increasingly came to dominate his business, and in 1934 he joined the Labor Daily for a short time as a full-time photographer, engaging other staff to look after his studio. By the mid-1930s most newspapers employed their own photographers, and Hood's commissions from the papers began to decline. Hood sought other kinds of commissions, and won a number of long-term advertising and commercial contracts. He contributed a number of photographs of Sydney buildings and streets to Building, Construction and Australasian Engineer during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Hood also had extensive contacts in the entertainment industry, who called upon him to document celebrity events and stars, as well as theatre advertising. Throughout his career he worked at the stock-in-trade for commercial photographers: portraits, weddings and even funerals.

The most popular State Library of NSW image on Flickr is:

Adelie penguins at Cape Denison, 1911–1914

Frank Hurley

Home and Away – 36512

ON 144/H530

aae_36512

The third most popular State Library of NSW image on Flickr

The third most popular State Library of NSW image on Flickr is:

Study of a small girl with a prize Scottish terrier dog, c. 1935

Sam Hood

Home and Away – 4821

DG ON4/4821

hood_04821

The fourth most popular State Library of NSW image on Flickr

The fourth most popular State Library of NSW image on Flickr is:

Peggy Bacon in mid-air backflip, Bondi Beach, 6 February 1937

Ted Hood

Home and Away – 14039

NCY36/167

hood_14039

The fifth most popular State Library of NSW image on Flickr

The fifth most popular State Library of NSW image on Flickr is:

Huskies pulling sledge, 1911–1914

Unknown photographer

PXE 725 / 1615 (Plate LX, fig 2)

photoprint

a203001

Back to List