B54 Photos

The B54 series are 5 by 4 inch, black and white acetate negatives. They are an all purpose series, meant to document whatever Council needed documenting with high quality film. They are notable for spanning the entire run of the Council photography department, from 1947 to 1994.

Included in this collection is a scan of the original ledger book that describes the content of each photo. Many of these descriptions fall short of their true scope, and City Archives has improved their descriptions for broader audiences and findability. As such there is often a large difference in the naming conventions in the ledger and on this website.

Photographers using this series were often deployed to the Works and Health & Safety departments, and as such a lot of their content shows a grimier, grungier side of Brisbane often not seen in this timeframe. Run down buildings, informal shops and stalls, backstreets and the everyday work of life. This, coupled with their very high fidelity, make the series a fascinating glimpse into an older Brisbane.

So often the interesting parts of the image are in the background. The photographer was contracted to take a photo of an often dull subject, but they had a keen eye for their surroundings. We encourage you to view the photos at full resolution using the Zoom to 100% button in the left sidebar of the photo viewer. There are tantalising glances lurking in every image.