The Australian Women's Register

It is unknown when she developed an interest in photography, however, by 1907 Mrs William Smith’s photographic skills were well developed and of a standard that saw her photographs exhibited in the Exhibition of Women’s Work in 1907, as well as the Victorian Photographic Affiliation Exhibition in 1909, in which she won first prize in the architectural and the genre section. In 1912, she is reported in the press as a member of the Victorian Ladies Photographic Association.

Newspaper reports of her garden parties at ‘Ravenswood’ in St Kilda East in 1895-1913 lead us to discover that she was the third wife and widow of a Scottish-born, merchant William Purves Smith (1835-1900), who died in Switzerland. Mrs Smith was a trained nurse and founding committee member of the Alliance Française in Melbourne. Together with Dr Helen Sexton, she went on to establish the private, and voluntary Hôpital Australien de Paris at 46 Rue du Dr Blanche in Auteuil in 1914, for which they were awarded a gold Medal of French Gratitude (Médaille de la Reconnaissance française”) in 1918.

Mrs Smith’s photograph, The Snake Charmer, c.1909, was reproduced in the Australasian Photo-Review and much commented on at the time. One critic commented: ‘[w]ho cannot realise the thrill of the spectators in Mrs William Smith’s picture, The Snake Charmer … It presents artistically but faithfully all the garish opulence of the glare of the midday sun. It contravenes many pet principles of photography; it shows hard lights and black shadows, but it is art all the same and there is no doubt it is true’ (APR, 1909; cited by Hall 45)