Synagogue Place Market Bazaar: Ron wanders the markets in the Adelaide City region of South Australia

Recently on Postcards we took you back to the age of vinyl at the Market Bazaar in the East End where mp3s and digital downloading are foreign concepts. In this altar to all things analogue you can step back in time to the days when your record collection defined your personality.

But out the back of the Market Bazaar the technological touchstones from different eras go back even further to the box brownie camera and memories stored on film.

An amazing photographic record of early Adelaide and South Australia belongs to Stewart Percival. The early sports photos are the work of Harry Krischock, a legendary photographer whose work was forgotten for many years.

"My father in law found a crate of old glass plates somewhere on Yorke Peninsula," explained Stewart. "I had them for twenty years or so and about ten years ago I thought I must do something with them so I catalogued them."

In cataloguing Harry's work Stewart followed the photographer's Saturday afternoon journeys to suburban league grounds like Hindmarsh Oval. Yes, for a time it was West Torren's home ground.

Harry was known for his action shots often scurrying across Adelaide Oval for a shot and then high-tailing it off the ground, having received a blast from the man in white.

Other photos from Stewart's collection were taken by an old work mate who took his camera everywhere.

"Keith James was still working with his photography well into his 80s. When I was helping him with equipment in the dark room I used to say to him, Keith Do you have any old negatives amongst all this. And he would say ' I don't know Stewie, I don't know. When he died I was taking care of the equipment etc for him and discovered there was in fact about fifty thousand negatives that he'd photographed."

Keith Jame's photos - on show at the Market Bazaar - will transport many locals back to the fifties when Victoria Square was lit up as part of the Queen's Visit or to Rundle Street before it was a mall.

"People look at the photograph and see the Yorke Theatre for instance which used to be at the corner of Gawler Place and they'll tell you about the films that they used to see there. So it does evoke a lot of memories for people. The city baths is one in particular because everyone who grew up at the city baths has got a story to tell about them. And, of course those that didn't are amazed to know that they were even there in the first place."

It's all photographic evidence of a very different Adelaide. Stewart's Adelaide Collection is on show at the Market Bazaar in Synagogue Place in the East End just off Rundle Street. It's open daily. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au

Synagogue Place
Market Bazaar - 17 Synagogue Place
The East End
Off Rundle Street

Published 1st July 2007