523
colony of British Columbia, won honourable mention.
The jury for the photographs included Claudet’s father,
Antoine-François-Jean Claudet.
Fardon did not remain in San Francisco very long
and relocated to Victoria, the capital city of the British
colony of Vancouver Island. The date of his move is still
uncertain, but appears to have been in 1859 or 1860 at
the latest. Evidence from one of his customer’s diary
and a copy of San Francisco Album owned by this same
customer, James de Fremery, places him in San Fran-
cisco in early March 1859 and possibly as late as July
1859 or January 1860 (Fardon, 1999, 171). Evidence for
Fardon’s earlier physical presence in Victoria is provided
by a receipt issued to Fardon on May 3, 1859 for a fi rst
installment payment on the purchase of two city lots at
auction in Victoria. These lots, however, may have been
bought on his behalf for his half-brother Alfred John
Langley. Langley, himself having moved to Victoria
from San Francisco in 1858, could also have purchased
them for Fardon. One of these lots, Lot 1616 (southwest
corner of Yates and Langley Streets), was rented on
May 10, 1859 by Langley to two Victoria merchants
who were also to construct a brick building on the lot.
This building housed Fardon’s studio in the late 1860s
and early 1870s. Fardon sold the second lot, Lot 1617,
on December 15, 1859 to his three half-brothers (A.J.,
James, and Charles Langley); the sales agreement does
not provide a geographic location for either party. Far-
don also owned a third lot, Lot 1620, in the same block
on Langley Street, which he sold, along with Lot 1616,
in May 1867 to A.J. Langley (Langley family papers,
BC Archives, MS-0180, box 2, fi les 17 and 18; Gazette
[Victoria], May 5, 1859, notice of sale of Lot 1616 and
1617 to “J.R. Fardon”).
Although Fardon was a Victoria property owner on
paper in 1859, he was not listed as a voter in the De-
cember 1, 1859 voters list, nor was he listed in the 1860
business directory. The fi rst unequivocal instance of
Fardon’s presence in Victoria is a ship arrival notice for
the steamer Pacifi c from San Francisco on June 15, 1860
on which “Mr. Fardon” is listed as a passenger (Daily
British Colonist [Victoria], June 16, 1860). Fardon was
assessed and taxed under the Vancouver Island colony’s
Trade Licenses Act on January 1, 1861 as a photographer
on Government Street. He may also have been the “pho-
tographist” responsible for photographing a corpse and
charging the widow $20 for expenses (brandy, cologne
and three handkerchiefs) to keep himself from fainting
(Daily British Colonist, October 23, 1860). The only
other known photographer in Victoria at this time was
Stephen Allen Spencer (1829?–1911), who may also
have had the commission. One of the fi rst known Victo-
ria newspaper ads for “Fardon’s Photographic Gallery”
was published on March 2, 1861 in the Daily British
Colonist. On March 28, 1861 the same newspaper noted
the addition of “G. Farden” to the membership of the
Industrial Exhibition Committee which began planning
the previous month for the Vancouver Island colony’s
submission to the 1862 London International Exhibition.
One of the photographs Fardon contributed, a multi-part
panorama of Victoria, was reproduced as a wood engrav-
ing in the Illustrated London News on January 14, 1863
(National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario).
While Fardon continued to produce a few outdoor
photographs in Victoria, the mainstay of his business
was portraiture. He photographed many of the city’s
founding families, as well as visitors, such as members
of the British Royal Engineers detachment, from the
mainland colony of British Columbia. Fardon’s earli-
est portraits generally see the customer standing with
a headstand for support. The studio backdrop is plain,
with a wide fl oorboard moulding and carpeted fl oor.
Sometimes a curtain, tied back, appears on the right.
In some of these early Victoria portrait photographs
Fardon appears to have encouraged a relaxed attitude
with his sitter lounging in a chair next to a table. A
few early portraits are also group shots of two or three
individuals, sometimes family members, sometimes
civil servants. Later portraits contain more elaborate
props and backdrops. In addition to these carte-de-visite
full-fi gure views, he also produced head and shoulders
portraits. Unlike his time in San Francisco, Fardon
placed newspaper and book advertisements indicating
his portrait specialties: “Cartes des visite. Likenesses on
patent leather, paper, or glass. Children under 5 years,
$3.” (Daily British Colonist, October 4, 1862). Besides
the nine patent leather portraits now owned by the Vic-
toria and Albert Museum, London, England, which were
exhibited at London International Exhibition in 1862,
only one other such portrait can be attributed to Fardon.
This is a full-fi gure carte-de-visite size studio portrait
of Sarah Crease, wife of H.P.P. Crease, a lawyer, judge
and knight (British Columbia Archives, Victoria). The
carpet pattern and plain studio wall match several other
portraits taken in Fardon’s studio; based on information
accompanying the photograph it was taken before June- Two other photographers in Victoria in 1862 who
advertised patent leather photographs were S.A. Spencer
and Blacklin & Bristow.
In October 1863 Fardon relocated his studio to a brick
building on the corner of Langley and Yates Streets.
Fardon returned to England between July 1865 and
July 1866. He hired Noah Shakespeare (1839–1921)
to manage his studio. When Fardon returned, Charles
(Carlo) Gentile hired Shakespeare in August 1866. One
of Fardon’s last newspaper ads started appearing in the
Daily Colonist in mid-September 1869. When Benjamin
F. Baltzly, an employee of Montreal’s William Notman,
visited and photographed in and around Victoria in July
1871, he captured a sign advertising Fardon’s business