Page 8 - Bulletin 7 2003

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that he never looked back. He remained a photographer all his life – apart from an
occasional sideline as agent for photographic records, pianola rolls or photographic

enlargers. His main interest soon became the recording of historic landmarks in the
city and its surroundings, which be supplemented with reproductions of antiques,

documents, old prints and photographs made before his time. He set up a studio at

134 Long Street, where he also lived for most of the rest of his life.

So prolific was his output of historical photographs, that during the Union
celebrations in 1910 he was asked to mount an exhibition of his work in Cape Town.

It was opened by none other than the former Prime Minister of the Cape Colony,
John X Merriman – himself the owner of one of the Cape’s loveliest old farms,

Schoongezicht at Stellenbosch. The noted historian, Dr G McCall Theal, compiled

the catalogue and wrote the notes – something Elliott would always leave to the
experts. Elliott photographs now became a welcome means by which to popularise

the interesting history of the newly formed Union of South Africa. Maskew Miller

published a portfolio for the use of schools, an enterprise that received the backing of
the authorities. In addition, Elliott derived a useful income from the sale of prints

from his exhibited photographs. He would often ‘tint’ these, as was the fashion at the
time, and for quite a while he collaborated with a fellow scene painter, Hedley

Churchward, who turned this over-painting into quite an art.

A second exhibition was soon to follow. In 1913 a selection of his work under the

title ‘The story of South Africa told in 800 pictures’ was shown in Pretoria, Cape
Town and other centres. Theal again compiled a catalogue and the architect F K

Kendall, who was later to restore Groot Constantia, wrote the introduction to the
section dealing with the historic architecture of the Cape – an article which still

stands as one of the definitive ones on the subject. There were not quite one hundred
architectural photographs at the exhibition, but these included some of the best work

Elliott ever did. His third exhibition, ‘Old Cape Colony’, took place in the Cape

Town City Hall in 1926, now with only 443 photographs, a minority of which
depicted old buildings. This time it was Sir George Cory, also a historian who wrote

the foreward to the catalogue, which was compiled by the archivist C Graham Botha,