User:Virgohno/Lillian Louisa Pitts: she/her, American, 1872-1947

= Background = Lillian Louisa Pitts, also known as L.L.P., was born Bairnsdale, Victoria Australia in 1872. She was raised in an affluent and devout Methodist household. After her family was affected by an economic depression in the 1890s, they moved to a pioneer community in Northern Victoria. This new way of life greatly inspired Pitt's photography and art later in her life. Pitts grew up with a love for music and the arts and made her living by teaching music classes and oil-painting. Her experience with painting and photography began when she would produce postcard portraits of friends and family. Pitts died in 1947.

Artistic Work
In 1907 Pitts began studying visual arts with A.M.E Alice Bale in Melbourne. While studying still life painting, Pitts used her experience and education in order to sell personal portraits as recommended by her teacher. Pitt's earliest known photograph dates back to 1904, since then Pitts began taking photos of the world around her as a way to capture her community's experiences. Even her first photographs demonstrate strong understanding of technique and composition.

A collection of 600 negatives of Pitt's photography is housed at the Victoria Museum. These photographs by Pitts depict daily life, recreation, and rural life and work. Pitts used her life experience to motivate and inspire her art. Pitt's photography was simple in its composition, depicting landscapes and rural people in routine. Her photographs were action driven featuring people in the middle of work or daily activities. Her subjects rarely faced the camera, her work functioned as a way to preserve moments in time and to show her audience a slice of life for people in Victoria. Other than depicting rural life in Victoria, Pitts also photographed Aboriginal life. Seen in her photograph Negative - Aboriginal Man Wearing Possum Skin Cloak, Swan Hill, circa 1915 for example. By photographing indigenous people, Pitts acknowledged the Aboriginal people's role in their community when others at the time would not.

Pitts also loved to photograph children. Her collections feature many portraits of children in her local community either posed or in action in their surroundings. This first began as she wanted to document her nieces growing up and their adventures on family vacations and holidays. Her photographs of children were especially popular and she won many prizes for those pieces and had her work featured in newspapers and publications.

During her prime as an artist, Pitts became great friends with the photographer J.P. (Jas) Campbell. Pitts and Campbell would travel together on photography expeditions where they would exchange ideas and critique each other's work.

Pitts is also featured in many photography books and collections such as The Story of the Camera in Australia by Jack Cato and Merrigum Frank compiled by Euan McGilliviary and Matthew Nickson which is an Australian children's book featuring Pitt's photographs.

Towards the end of her life, Pitts was again impacted by the Great Depression (Australia) and moved back towards oil painting as her artistic outlet. Perhaps this is due to the high cost of her photography equipment and traveling. In this phase of her artistic career, Pitts was inspired by her family and the nature around her. When her family moved to their pioneer village, they owned an orchard. Pitts spent lots of time in the orchard and painted it often. If not painting the orchard, Pitts would set up her easel in it and would often paint young women.

Collections

 * Lillian Louisa Pitts Collection, Museums Victoria
 * National Gallery of Australia