Cirrus@Austlit

'By default, a sound biography becomes a potted ­history of the decades of its setting. It is also a record of the fading and flourishing mindsets, fashions and technologies of the time. Readers of a certain generation will fondly recall the Kodak Box Brownie camera with its convex rectangular window and the concentrated delight of collecting a modest, brown-paper envelope of photos from the local chemist a few days later. The black-and-white results were more often than not lopsided, out of focus and sometimes cut off people’s heads.' (Introduction) 

'In 1938, Norah Heysen, the daughter of celebrated landscape painter Hans Heysen, won the Archibald Prize with a portrait of socialite Madame Elink Schuurman. A simple cameo will demonstrate what she was up against.'(Introduction)