Project: Kittles Tronerud & King Island
My grandfather, Kittles Johannes Tronerud, was born in 1870 in Norway – the son of Jorgen Tronerud, school teacher and church singer, and Karen Mathea Tronerud. In 1889 Kittles jumped ship while in port in Melbourne and made his way to Tasmania where he married and raised his first family of five children on the North Coast before being widowed. His naturalisation papers note his profession as Photographer.
Kittles raised his second family of around 10 children – fathering my mother and Aunt Rita in his early 70s 60s to a much younger wife – on King Island where he had much earlier shot extensive photography between 1900 and 1911. Kittles died at the age of 69 after not recovering from surgery.
Two attached PDFs [number 1 and number 2] outline Kittle’s family tree from the early 1800s… one brother emigrated to New York.
Mrs Dorothy Crow of Grassy, King Island wrote a letter (attached) to my sister in 1988 describing how her husband had come by Kittles (also known as Joe Tronerud) original camera and glass negatives from a local farmer. Her husband printed 100 of the negatives and they were exhibited on King Island then were exhibited for a further two weeks in the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston. Kittles camera and photographs are now housed in the King Island Museum.
A scan of a 1988 clipping from the King Island newspaper (also attached) shows four of the reproduced glass negatives.
The questions that I would like to address relate to the way Kittles, an impoverished professional Photographer with dirt floors and a large family to feed, saw the world around him. I would like to revisit some of his key photographs and investigate the difference or sameness in culture and landscape on King Island exactly one century since some of these shots were taken. This would involve visiting King Island Museum and hunting down familial links in the local community.
My photography portfolio work is available online at Steven Clark Studio.
September 2nd, 2010 at 2:46 pm
This sounds like a great project.
September 2nd, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Hi Sue, yeh it would be interesting to spend 18 months on that project then have a solo exhibition of the work. Its sometimes a little hard to get into art school though, it depends a lot on what they think of my portfolio…
… but touch wood
Oh we’re also getting a second hand Adana Letterpress – it arrives next month. We got it very very cheap too… and with some minor refurbishment we should have it printing by late November or December. So that will be fun, just as I come into my holidays.
September 2nd, 2010 at 3:42 pm
It’s identical to the one I saw at the market a month or so ago…
http://stevenclark.com.au/2010/07/24/sweet-old-adana-letterpress-at-the-market/
September 3rd, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Good luck, it will be interesting.
What type of things are you able to print with the letterpress.
September 5th, 2010 at 9:02 am
I think it prints 8″ x 4″ or 8″ x 5″, not sure… but you can print on paper or cloth… nice for aprons and linen bags and stuff… cards etc…
Looking forward to it arriving. We have spare parts here already for refurbishing it back to new. They are usually really expensive but Lindy picked this one up for around $300 … about 1/10th of its true value. Not bad.
Will be fun. My mead won’t be ready until next winter though
September 6th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Sounds like fun, great purchase. I have been purchasing old glass from Ebay. Poor Alf! The first lot (70 old window slats) quite a few different patterns were so heavy Alf split his pants picking it up. The second lot (green, red, some blue and purple come from an old building). really pretty mostly starburst pattern. Anyway, we get to the place and it rains flat out – Alf didn’t have an umbrella. I think I owe him big time for this and I had better not make any purchases for a while. Not bad for a total of around $70 all up and almost enough to start a shop. I can’t wait to see what your printer can do
September 6th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
That’s a lot of glass. I won’t show Lindy or it will inspire her to get onto Ebay ha ha. Yes really looking forward to that printer arriving… and I’m just a few minor ingredients short of starting my mead – but it won’t be ready to drink for about 9 months which is a bit of a tease.