Darian Smith pioneers high-quality aerial photographs by the thousands over South Australia from 1920s
Darian Smith took his early aerial photos over South Australia strapped to the wing of a Gypsy Moth aircraft. Bottom: Smith's 1930s images included (from left) Adelaide Oval during the 1933 Bodyline series, Adelaide city and General Motors-Holden factory at Birkenhead.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
(Douglas) Darian Smith pioneered high-quality aerial photography in South Australia in the 20th Century.
Smith was born on 1900 in North Adelaide, youngest of three sons of doctor Alfred Frederick Smith and his wife Edith Mary, both from Northern Ireland. Smith’s father died in 1905, leaving his wife with little income to support her two surviving sons. To sort out her affairs she returned to Europe, leaving the boys in the care of a Dr Hamilton. When she didn’t come back after two years, their guardian placed them in St Vincent de Paul Orphanage, Goodwood.
In 1917, Smith enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, putting his age up by a year and claiming to be a motor mechanic and that both his parents were dead. In August that year, he was discharged as medically unfit but later reenlisted and was allocated to the Australian army medical corps, still raising his age and saying he was a clerk. He sailed for Europe in 1918.
While in England, Smith trained in photography at Regent Street Polytechnic. He also had his first flight and took his first photos with another South Australian, Ross Smith, in the Vickers Vimy in England in 1918 just before the famous Smith brothers’ flight from England to Australia in 1919.
Discharged from the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) and returning to South Australia in 1919, Smith worked for G. & R. Wills Co., Adelaide, until 1926 when he married Eileen Margaret Brodie at St Laurence’s Catholic Church, North Adelaide.
Smith set up his own photographic business and was one of the first people to fly from Parafield Airport that started operating in 1928. During the 1920s and 1930s, he associated with many famous aviators including Harry Butler, Bert Hinkler, Jim Mollison and Charles Kingsford Smith. His first aerial photographs were taken in a DH 60 Gypsy Moth, flying with Horrie Miller who later formed MacRobertson Miller Airlines. This involved standing on the wing of the aircraft and giving instructions to the pilot using hand signals. He wore a leather harness that he tested by jumping from a stair landing. All of Smith’s earliest photographs were captured with a heavy large-format glass plate camera. After each flight, he developed the negatives in the basement of his home.
Smith took photos over all the suburbs of Adelaide and country locations such as Victor Harbor, Goolwa, Barossa Valley and the River Murray. One of his most important assignments was photographing proposed airfield sites in South Australia. He also was an important medical and industrial photographer. In 1931 Australian Homes and Gardens published his aerial photographs of Port Noarlunga and in 1932 one of Adelaide. The same year, his book Adelaide, South Australia, From the Air was published. He regularly photographed social and sporting events for South Australian Homes and Gardens and other magazines, and for local businesses, including General Motors-Holden’s. In 1939, he moved his family to a purpose-built studio and home in Barnard Street, North Adelaide.
In 1979, the Australian Photographic Society awarded him its commonwealth medal for services to professional photography. To preserve the legacy of Darian Smith’s collection of photographs, Atkins Technicolour transferred the negatives to digital format. In 2022, the State Library of South Australia acquired more than 100,000 high-quality images of the state's life captured over 60 years until Smith retired in 1980s. The library previously held holds around 2,000 images by Smith, with the latest addition increasing its total pictorial collection by around 10%..
