Dates

• Existence: 1845 - 1926

Biography

John William Lindt was born in Frankfurt. Lindt was the son of Peter Joseph Lindt, excise officer, and his wife Justine (née Rambach). He ran away to sea at the age of 17 and joined a Dutch vessel. He deserted at Brisbane, Australia. By 1863 he was working at Grafton, New South Wales, as a piano tuner and shortly afterwards commenced his professional photographic career. He married Anna Maria Dorothea Wagner on January 13th 1872 at Grafton. She died on May 27th 1888. Lindt married Catherine Elizabeth Cousens on the 10th July 1889 at Melbourne.

Lindt worked for the photographer Wagner at Grafton, New South Wales in the 1860s. He visited Germany in 1867 and on his return bought Wagner's business. He photographed Aboriginal Australians of Clarence River area in the early 1870s and published portfolios of Aboriginal Australian portraits. In 1876 he moved to a studio in Collins Street, Melbourne and won repute for society, theatre and landscape photographs. He was the official photographer with Sir Peter Scratchley's expedition to New Guinea in 1885. He visited Europe circa 1886. He was the official photographer for the Melbourne International Expedition in 1888. He photographed the Chaffey Brothers' irrigation works on the River Murray in the late 1880s. He toured and photographed the New Hebrides and climbed the Tanna volcano 1890. He toured Fiji with a grant from the Royal Geographical Society in 1892 and photographed a fire-walking ceremony. He lost his clientele in the financial crisis and closed his Melbourne Studio in 1894. He moved to the Hermitage at Black Spur in 1895. He exhibited photograms at Albert Street Art Gallery in 1909. He also photographed North Queensland Aboriginal Australians circa 1890. Lindt died on the 19th February 1926 (Pike 1974, p.80-90).

Likenesses:

See between p.176 and p.177 of Cato's 'The story of the camera...' (1955).

Publications:

Lindt, J.W. (1887), 'Picturesque New Guinea'. London: Longmans, Green and Co. [Travel volume describing the Sketchley mission, illustrated with 50 collotypes from Lindt's photographs].

Sources:

Cato, Jack (1955), 'The story of the camera in Australia'. Melbourne: Institute of Australian Photographers.

Pike, Douglas ed. (1974), 'Australian dictionary of biography'. Volume 5: 1851-1890 K-Q. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

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