Background
Francis Herbert Dufty, was born in Kennington, Surrey, England circa 1846 to Francis Herbert and Martha (née Stow) Dufty. In 1883 he was married to Louisa Palmer, eldest daughter of James Palmer, of Vagadace, Levuka, Fiji.
Francis Herbert Dufty, was born in Kennington, Surrey, England circa 1846 to Francis Herbert and Martha (née Stow) Dufty. In 1883 he was married to Louisa Palmer, eldest daughter of James Palmer, of Vagadace, Levuka, Fiji.
Dufty"s contribution to Fiji was of primary importance in the 1870s and was one of Fiji"s most significant early photographers. Their son Colin Dufty was an Australian rules football player who played with Collingwood in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Dufty died in Melbourne in 1910 at the age of 64.
Australia
His images were said to be "the sweetest Australian scenes" photographed.
In the Kyneton Directory for 1866, Dufty was listed as a "photographic artist’ of Piper Street, Kyneton, Victoria where he had a studio with John P. Carolin. The Kyneton Guardian considered a photograph of Mr Dutton’s property "one of the sweetest Australian scenes we have ever seen photographed’.
"Three views of Victorian scenery’ by Dufty and Carolin were selected to be sent on from Melbourne to the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition. Around 1865 Dufty had set up the Number.
F.H. Dufty alone was listed in the Melbourne Directory for 1869, at 108 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, while Edward presumably remained in the country.
Fiji
At the age of 25 Dufty arrived in Levuka from Victoria in the Steamship Egmont in June 1871. He set up a new studio next door to the Fiji Times newspaper office on 24 May 1871. He also had a jewellery business on the same premises.
Alfred was out of Fiji in Australia and New Caledonia for extended periods of time, that most of the photographs of Fiji are attributed to Francis Dufty.
The Dufty studio produced studio portraits, street scenes landscape photographs and a large body of "cartes de visite", which had been popularised in Europe in the mid-19th Century. They photographed missionaries, European settlers, the Fijian hierarchy and commoners, and other people from the Pacific.
Portraits were often staged, a process which facilitated the creation of Fijian stereotypes. A dealer in Fijian handicrafts, Dufty acquired a range of props which were used repeatedly.
In 1880, Dufty"s landscape photograph of Fiji was exhibited at the Melbourne International Exhibition.
Alfred transferred to Suva, Fiji in 1884 or 1885 and opened a studio there. Dufty remained in Levuka until 1886 when he moved to Suva to join Alfred. In June 1887 Alfred and his family left to return to Australia.
Dufty did not remain in Suva long, and left for Melbourne in April 1892.
Francis was very active in local affairs Foreign three years he was president of the Levuka Mechanics’ Insittute and held various other offices.
He was a prominent member of the British Subject’s Mutual Protection Society, in opposition to Cakobau’s Government, and a staunch advocate of annexation to Great Britain. He was a charter member of the first Masonic lodge.