H. B. Ballard

  • Artist (Photographer)
Ballard was a professional photographer who practiced in Beechworth, Victoria from 1868, Mount Gambier, South Australia from 1880, and later in Branxton and Singleton, New South Wales, from c.1888. His photographs were exhibited in the 1888-89 Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition at the New South Wales Court, catalogue number 352.

H. B. Ballard is recorded to have practiced as a professional photographer in three states including Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. Advertisements for his services appeared in Border Watch and South Eastern Star, during a visit he made to Mount Gambier in 1880. He was a portrait photographer who claimed to be equipped with the ‘latest scientific appliances’ and according to the nineteenth century advertisements, Ballard had erected a studio in which he was able to photograph his sitters. He is also understood to have constructed a mobile darkroom situated atop a wooden handcart that allowed him to work with wet-plate glass negatives that he sensitised and developed. A c.1880 image depicts Ballard’s handcart adjacent a building bearing the name F.T. McFarlane. The building is believed to be that of stationer F.T. McFarlane, who traded at Penola in South Australia’s south-east.

This photographer may be connected with Benjamin Ballard.

Writers:
Staff Writer
Nerina_Dunt
Date written:
1992
Last updated:
2013