Ruth Hollick

Bio

Ruth Hollick (1883-1977) was a Melbourne based artist and photographer who studied at the National Gallery School and was taught by Frederick McCubbin. In 1908 Hollick began her career as a portrait photographer particularly focusing on group portraits of families, especially mothers with their children. In 1918 Hollick and her partner Dorothy Lzard took over a studio in the Auditorium Building at 167 Collins Street, Melbourne. Later occupying a whole floor of Chartres House at 163 Collins Street. During the 1920s and early 1930s in partnership with Lzard, Hollick became a highly successful society and fashion photographer in Melbourne. As well as her images regularly appearing in the pages of Table Talk, the Bulletin, Lone Hand, Home, and the Australian magazine. Her work was also regularly exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, including the Chicago Photographic Exhibition and London Photographic Salon of 1927 and the Amateur Photographer Overseas Exhibition in London in 1932. Hollick’s career was significantly effected by both the Great Depression and World War II and although she continued to work out of her home studio in Moonee Ponds she didn’t attain the same success as she did in the 20s and 30s. Much of her work has since vanished as it predominately circulated in the domestic sphere, however, she is still regarded as one of the most prolific Australian female photographers from the period.

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