Sep 20 2008
Marcel Safier
Marcel Safier was born in Southport, Queensland on Australia’s Gold Coast and he developed an early interest in photography through using his mother’s Kodak Bob Brownie, although quickly moving up to a Minolta SR2. At 15 his interest in old photographs was stimulated by a gift of early family pictures from a relative, but it was a Scottish cabinet photo that most drew his attention. A year later he acquired some old photos from an antique shop and he has collected them ever since. Parallel to this he has avidly researched his Scottish and English ancestry.
In 1984 he graduated in Medicine from the University of Queensland and later started working as a General Practitioner on Brisbane’s south side. In 1992 he purchased a Brisbane family photograph album and he became more curious about local photographers. It turned out the grand children of two of the photographers whose work was in the album were patients of his. Since then he has keenly researched the lives of Brisbane photographers, using familiar genealogical techniques and creating family trees for many of them. This research eventually extended to photographers from other parts of Queensland, then Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and America and contact with hundreds of descendants and relations of photographers.
Friendships with fellow collectors and researchers Sandy Barrie and Robert (Bob) Noye (now deceased) greatly increased his enthusiasm and knowledge. Marcel’s collection has grown to over 25,000 photographs and is particularly strong in Australian carte de visite images, his first love amongst his extensive collection that also includes many early glass plate cameras. Through their mutual interests Marcel began corresponding with Ron Cosens, Britain’s major carte de visite collector in Yorkshire which eventually led to a meeting in 2005, and a continuous exchange of ideas and data since.
Marcel has spoken to historical societies, collector’s groups and photographic conventions on aspects of photographic history, he has created photographic history websites, authored monographs on photographers, contributed to the Routledge “Encyclopedia of 19th Century Photography” and is currently researching a book on early Jewish photographers of Australia with Mike Butcher and he is now endeavoring to write the history of the carte de visite photograph in Australia. He is a member of Cameraholics (Photographic Collectors Club of Queensland), the Queensland Card Collector’s Society Inc, the Australian Photographic Collector’s Society, the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain, The Daguerreian Society and The Photographic Historical Society of Canada. He enjoys photography especially at music concerts and is a keen convert to the digital medium despite owning more than 50 usable film cameras!
To contact Marcel, visit http://members.ozemail.com.au/~msafier
