Painter and photographer; Brisbane in the 18805 and 18905

In August of 1889 the popular local magazine The Boomerang published an article entitled ‘Photography as an Art’, which took the form of an extended advertisement for the recently moved establishment of Thomas Mathewson, one of Brisbane's well-patronized photographic studios 1 Mathewson began as a professional photographer in 1864, travelling widely throughout Queensland and setting up studios in Gympie and Maryborough. In July of 1876 he opened the studio of Mathewson and Co. in Queen Street, Brisbane. The studio was well established by the mid 1880s and continued in operation until the 1920s. . In the article the writer compares Mathewson's studio with an artistically appointed ‘salon’: ‘This is a palace of photography indeed, with its glittering entrance gallery lined with golden show frames and its luxurious waiting-room that is like the salon of a patron of the fine arts’ 2 The Boomerang (24th August 1889). (Figure 1).