Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Photographer Beaufoy Merlin

Photographer Beaufoy Merlin

1871
Glass photonegative

Henry Beaufoy Merlin had a range of names (Murlin, Muriel, Merling) and a range of jobs (journalist, theatre owner, actor, lecturer and illusionist), before taking up photography in Victoria in 1864. He travelled north with his assistant, Charles Bayliss, as the ‘American and Australasian Photographic Company’ and reached Sydney in 1870. They developed a unique style of photography, recording every building in the towns they visited. His association with Holtermann in Hill End in 1872 gave rise to a remarkable visual documentation of NSW and Victoria. He died, aged 43, the following year.

Merlin – by Jill Jones

Showman, magician

magpie, magnifier

shedder, shrouder

god of collodion

and composition.

Now you are

composed by likeness

composed by limbs

composed by light

by some Unknown (Bayliss?).

Puppeteer, pursuer

scratched, scribed positive

photographer’s finger

pointing out of the frame

out of the fray

to another shuffle

to another shutter

to another showplace

to another front.

after Photographer Beaufoy Merlin - a2824453