If you've looked through old photo albums, you may well have seen a street photograph or several. We have one in this blog already, in the story of Rasa Ščevinskiene's grandfather, Adomas Ivanauskas.
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| Adomas Ivanauskas with friend Beryl on a Melbourne street, 17 October 1950 Source: Private Collection |
This form of street photography is said to have started in the United Kingdom in the 1930s and flourished during the period when few people had their own cameras, let alone phones which took more photographs than they took calls.
Given the size of cameras in those days, those being photographed would have been aware of what was happening and probably smiled because they knew they had been "caught". An assistant handed the subjects a card to tell them where they could view contact prints in the next or following days. There was a price to pay but, given the absence of personal cameras, many were willing.
Some of these photographers operated also at social events, as Rasa's blog entries about friends of her grandfather testify.
An niece of Izidorius Smilgevicius' wife, Joy Spain, gave me access to his small photograph collection when we met in Melbourne. It included these two photographs of Izzy with friends, likely to be fellow Lithuanians.
One was definitely taken on a street, but by a photographer who was not accomplished. A better photographer would have not have cut off some of the man on the left by including less background on the right.
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| Young Lithuanian men, probably on a Melbourne street — might some of the others be those who absconded from EZ Rosebery with Izzy? Source: Private collection |
The photograph below probably was taken at a social event. That's my guess because the young men, all from the First Transport, I was told, are all dressed in their best (and probably only) suits.
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| Five Lithuanian men from the First Transport Source: Private Collection |
So, who do you recognise in the photographs above?
Museums of History NSW, 'The street snapshot craze' https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/street-snapshot-craze/, accessed 24 March 2026.
