Spouse(s) Elizabeth Tilly | Name Samuel Sweet | |
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Born 1 March 1825 Portsmouth, Hampshire, England Died 4 January 1886
Riverton, South Australia, Australia Occupation Photographer & merchant ship master | ||
Captain Samuel White Sweet (1 May 1825 – 4 January 1886) was an Australian photographer and sea captain. Throughout his life Sweet captained many ships in the assistance of the colonisation of parts of Australia and through taking photographs along the way Sweet became one of the largest documentary photographers during the 1870s of Australian colonies. As a photographer Sweet was also a pioneer in the development of Australian landscape photography as an art form and the use of technical advancements.
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Background
In 1884 Sweet joined the Royal Navy at age nineteen, serving on the China Station until 1849. Sweet gained command of the merchant ship Pizarro in 1857 for which he kept the meteorological log for the Board of Trade for several years. These efforts resulted in Sweet being awarded "Letters of Honorable Mentions". In 1861 Sweet travelled the South American waters carrying out surveys for the charts of the British Admiralty. In 1864 Sweet and his family arrived in Queensland, Australia to grow cotton having migrated from England on the Flying Cloud. In 1866 Sweet set up his first photographic practise in a partnership with William Gibson. From this time Sweet committed himself to photography and in 1868 applied for the role of the official photographer for the Goyder Northern Territory Expedition, however was instead appointed as Commander of the Government Schooner Gulnare which supported the Goyder Expedition and the new settlement at Port Darwin. Whilst Sweet was never the official photographer of this trip as it was appointed to Joseph Brooks, Sweet did take on some of Brooks' photographic duties as he was busy surveying. As a result of this, during his return from the North Sweet organised exhibitions and lectures of his views surrounding the trip and procured sales of his prints through William's Stationary. In 1870 Sweet was also commissioned to supply northern construction teams who were building the British-Australian overland telegraph link from Darwin to Port Adelaide. Sweet's views are the only record of this event. At this time he was also commissioned to survey the Roper River. With this Sweet made five voyages between Adelaide and the Northern Territory between 1869 and 1872, taking photographs alongside managing his main duties. In 1872 however Sweet lost his commission after the Gulnare ran aground onto a reef. He then captained another ship, the Wallaroo having joined the Black Diamond Line and transported coal from Newcastle NSW to South Australia. However, on 11 May 1875 the ship Wallaroo became grounded on Office Beach, Wallaroo during a gale. An analysis of the incident attributed the grounding to a miscalculation made by Captain Sweet and he was knocked from his position as a Captain. From this point Sweet retired from the sea and opened a photographic studio in Adelaide.
Photography
By 1872 Sweet was an experienced photographer and opened a photography studio on Flinders Street, Adelaide, later moving to a studio in Rundle Street. With his studio Sweet took many portrait photographs but focused mainly on landscapes, travelling around South Australia with a horse-drawn darkroom, focusing on taking pictures of the Australian outback and homesteads, some of which exhibited in Melbourne and Sydney. With these photos Sweet became one of the colony's largest documentary photographers during the 1870s through to the early 1880s. Sweet was also one of the first photographers to use a new dry-plate/gelatin process during this time.
On 4 January 1886 Sweet died suddenly due to sunstroke near Riverton in Halldale, South Australia. He was married to Elizabeth Tilly and together they had four daughters and five sons.