Henry Talbot

Henry Talbot, born Heinz Tichauer (6 December 1920, Germany – 25 January 1999) was a German-Australian fashion photographer noted for his long association with the Australian fashion industry, particularly the Australian Wool Board.

Life and career Born in Germany to Jewish parents, he studied graphic design at the Reimann School in Berlin. Henry first travelled to London, England under pressure from rising tensions. There he worked as a window-dresser at a department store. After the Kristallnacht, Henry's father Max was detained, but having won the Iron Cross in World War I, Max was released, and subsequently Max and his wife fled to Bolivia.

In England, Henry was interned as a German National by two plain clothes policemen and later shipped to Australia on the Dunera. During his internment in Hay, New South Wales, Henry practiced his artwork and studied in the camp 'university' established by the internees.

Upon release in 1942, Henry joined the Australian Army, in which he served until 1946, loading and unloading goods trains at the New South Wales / Queensland border, where he established a close personal friendship with fellow German refugee Helmut Newton. After the War, Henry refreshed his studies of graphic design at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Henry then visited his parents in Cochabamba, Bolivia, practicing art and reviving his pre-war interest in photography, winning a local photography prize. a fellow refugee whom he had met while fruit picking in Tocumwal after his release from internment. of a company named Helmut Newton & Henry Talbot Pty Ltd which was formally registered as a company 28 June 1963 and operated at Bourke Street until April 1966, when it moved to La Trobe Street, operating until 1976.

Talbot photographed various Australian Olympic figures, including gold medallist Dawn Fraser in the Olympic pool in Melbourne during the 1956 Summer Olympics and Franz Stampfl, whom he knew through the Hay internment and who trained Roger Bannister for his four-minute mile record. Other famous Australian models included Penny Pardey and Judy O'Connell, house models for Pierre Cardin, in 1967. During this period he was commissioned by the Australian Wool Board, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Kent Cigarettes and General Motors, among other brands. The show was opened by photographer/filmmaker Paul Cox. Ellis, a notorious provocateur, selected Talbot and Jerrems to attract attention to the new gallery.

Later life Talbot moved to Sydney with artist and mathematician Lynette Mortimer, whom he had married in 1974,

Awards 1958 Fashion Photographer of the Year, Australian Fashion News 1963 C.S. Christian Trophy, Australian Photographic Society 1965 A.P.R. Achievement in Photography Award 1967 Award of Distinction, Pacific Photographic Fair 1968 Distinctive Merit Award, Art Directors Club of Melbourne Awarded E (Excellence) by Honours Committee of Federation internationale de l'Art Photographique.