POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

1960s photographs of London

Object No. 96/44/1-3/5

Five of this group of six colour transparencies provide an intimate portrait of London streets in during the 1960s. David also shot an interesting series of portraits of tradespeople in London around the same time. Both series, reflect Mist's ongoing interest in reportage or social documentary image making. This set of candid colour street photographs (digitized by the Museum in 2013) capture the vibrant, colourful street life of Carnaby Street (Soho) and Brompton Road (Knightsbridge), London at a time when Carnaby Street in particular was becoming a mecca for the young and mod. Carnaby Street was a short narrow street lined with independant fashion boutiques, including the Mary Quant shop. It is located close to two of London's major shopping thoroughfares - Oxford and Regent Streets. The cars, fashion, architecture, laneways, shops window displays, painted murals and typography captured in Mist's street photos reflect the gay, carnival, counter-culture atmosphere of inner city London during this period. Mist had been apprenticed to Barron Studios, a established London-based portrait studio, before joining Studio 5, a more modern commercial and fashion studio, run by John Cole and Douglas Clark in Mayfair, London in 1955. He joined the RAF School of Aerial Photography and travelled to Brazil as an official RAF photographer, before returning to work at Studio 5 in London in 1957. Mist then opened his own studio, David Mist and Partners in London in 1960, before migrating to Australia on the SS Canberra, a P&O liner in 1961. David Mist went on to became one of Sydney's leading commercial and fashion photographers. After arriving, he almost immediately began working for one of Sydney's leading studios, that of Laurence Le Guay and John Nesbitt. David's suggestion that Le Guay and Nesbitt become Studio Ten (after Studio 5, London) was taken on board the same year (1961) and Mist continued to work in the studio for almost four decades, until it was sold in 1996. These fabulous colour transparencies were taken during a return trip to London to visit family. One of these after David Mist married Kathleen Harte in 1963 (born Rockhampton Qld, 2 Feb 1939) and another in 1965, after he'd travelled to Tasco and Acapulco in Mexico with model Caroline Drury for Grace Bros publicity. After this particular trip David meet up with Kathleen in London and they drove through Europe to Venice and back again to London. Mist received the AFIAP from the Federation International de l'Art Photographie in 1965. Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Curator, 2013 References: Conversations with the photographer, 1996-2013 David Mist, Exposed: a life behind the camera (A&A, Sydney 2005)