Frank Corley (born Francis Huia Miller Corley; 15 January 1913 – 19 October 1995) was a New Zealand-born commercial photographer who worked in South East Queensland, and primarily Brisbane in Australia. Corley was one of a number of commercial house photographers who worked in Brisbane from the late 1950s onwards, selling photographs of suburban homes to their owners, often in the form of calendars.[1]
Corley's business was called the Pan American Home Photographic Co., and comprised a team of employees involved in photography, sales and printing.[1] The company's slogan was 'From Our Home to Your Home.[2] It has been noted that because each product that was offered for sale was effectively 'unique', the business circumvented the need for a hawkers licence.[3] Corley was married to Eunice Reid Corley (1913-1988), who worked closely with him in the enterprise.[4] Corley was known to take the photographs from the driver's seat of his Cadillac, while Eunice followed in a 'darkroom van' where she developed the photographs.[5] It is estimated that Corley took more than half a million photographs of Queensland houses.[5]
While produced for commercial purposes, today, Corley's photographs represent an important and unparalleled survey of suburban Brisbane during postwar decades, capturing the city during an important moment of transition and expansion.