Page 4 - Bulletin 7 2003
P. 4

1





                                               THE CAPE OF ARTHUR ELLIOTT


                                                       Hans Fransen




                     This book [A Cape Camera] has its origins in a similar volume, The Architectural
                     Beauty of the Old cape as seen by Arthur Elliott, now long out of print. In response

                     to numerous requests for a second edition, it was decided to publish a book on the
                     same subject but with a larger and partly different selection of photographs. Instead

                     of  concentrating  on  subjects  no  longer  in  existence,  as  the  earlier  book  did,  the
                     present choice attempts to present a fuller picture of the architectural environment at

                     the Cape as it existed in the early decades of the century and was recorded by Arthur

                     Elliott (1870? – 1938). To add usefulness to the aesthetic enjoyment that Elliott’s
                     pictures will no doubt offer the viewer, I have added an overview of the architectural

                     styles – mainly the ‘Cape Dutch’ – that have been so well recorded by his camera.


                     Although  it  is  now  almost  a  century  since  Arthur  Elliott  started  his  photographic

                     career, he was by no means one of South Africa’s pioneer photographers. He was, for
                     that  matter,  perhaps  not  even  a  particularly  good  photographer.  Elliott  was  thirty

                     years of age and of no fixed profession when, in 1900, he was given a camera as a
                     present and started his new occupation by taking and selling snaps of troops at Green

                     Point.  In many ways,  he always  remained a talented and dedicated amateur. (Fig.

                     1.1).


                     Nor  did  Arthur  Elliott  have  much  of  a  historical  or  artistic  background.  His
                     experience in the cultural field was limited to a few years as a scene painter and stage

                     manager for theatrical companies and as a phonographic record agent. Indeed, it is
                     doubtful  whether  even  at  the  height  of  his  career  as  a  photographic  recorder  of

                     history  and  its  artistic  products,  he  would  have  been  able  coherently  to  write  or

                     lecture on the cultural-historical aspects of the subjects he photographed. Nor was he
                     even  sufficiently  ‘scientifically’  inclined  to  annotate  and  index  his  photographs

                     adequately, with data on time, place and subject – although if the nation had
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9