Wilhelm Ludwig Luckemeyer was born in Witten, Germany in 1893 and ,ay have served in the German Infantry and Artillery 1914-18. In 1919 a German census has him listed as a master carpenter. He arrived in Australia 1 December 1926 from Toulon disembarking in Adelaide but has one listing in 1933 as a photographer for WL Meyer is at 117 Collins street. Whether the intervening years were spent in Adelaide is unknown. He exhibited in the Victorian Salon of Photography as W.L. Lucke-Meyer.
In 1934 Lucke-Meyer illustrated Melbourne by Night book published by Sydney Ure Smith, __Melbourne by Night_ with text by poet Basil Burdett. It is likely the publication was originated by Ure Smith and Basil Burdett rather than an initiative of the photographer. The title suggests the publication was inspired by Hungarian born photographer Brassai’s 1933 Paris by night.The background to the commission would be interesting but was probably aimed at the 1934 Victorian Centenary.
Local photographers must have been a little surprised at the choice of Lucke-Meyer over locals like John Kauffmann or Spencer Shier. The work is a significant photobook. It was warmly praised in the newspapers but copies are held in few locations and are very rare on the private market. The quality of work is very high but how Ure Smith came to choose a photographer he would not have known personally with very little published or exhibited work is a mystery. Luckemeyer’s assets were confiscated on deportation and no negatives and only a prints are known.
Lucke-Meyer supplied images to German publications including photographs of the March 1935 St Patrick’s Day parade in Melbourne now held by the Museum of the City of Melbourne. The sophistication of his art photography and illustrative work indicated Lucke-Meyer had possibly learned photography in Germany before his arrival and been familiar with art photography in Europe.
In 1936 Lucke-Meyer was listed as official photographer for The Modern Store an ambitious well illustrated new quarterly trade journal on modern design and architecture edited by JJ Stewart-Malir. The second issue in March 1936 carried Lucke-Meyer’s images of the new Capel Court building in Collin’s street.
Lucke-Meyer was interned on 4 September 1939 the living in Hotham street East Melbourne and working for Johns and Waygood engineers in Cecil street South Melbourne. He was described at five feet ten inches, grey hair blue eyes and a scar near his left eye, and held until 1947 when repatriated at his request in the hope of finding his sister Julia in Germany. He learned later no family survived and sought to remain with support form Johns and Waygood. However, the official files in the National Archives of Australia listed considerable political activity over his time in Melbourne deemed undesirable and Lucke-Meyer was deported on the General Heintzelman on 24 November 1947.
Copies of Melbourne by Night are rare and only one print is known a view of the public library in the State Library of Victoria. No known archive.
- Writers:
-
newtog
gaelnewton
- Date written:
- 2023
- Last updated:
- 2026
