About the artist
Laurence Craddock Le Guay (1916-1990) was a prominent Australian fashion photographer. Initially nurtured by Harold Cazneaux, Le Guay's interest in photography blossomed at an early age. By 18, he was working at Dayne portrait studio, before setting up his own studio in 1937. He joined the Pictorialist Sydney Camera Circle in 1940, eventually shifting towards a more Surrealist style, emphasizing the Machine Age and the heroic nude. His association with Max Dupain, Olive Cotton, and others led to the formation of The Contemporary Camera Groupe, a modernist collective.
Le Guay joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1940, serving as a photographer in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Post-war, he toured Northern Australia alongside artist Robert Emerson Curtis. In 1946, he launched Contemporary Photography, a magazine which championed modernism and documentary styles, a stark contrast to the prevailing Pictorialist approach. He died in 1990, leaving behind ex-wife Ann Warmington and a daughter.
