Like many photographers working in the 1930s and 1940s, Stan Berriman and Herbert Chargois were drawn to images of industry and modern life, including the imposing forms of docked ships, and wharfmen at work.

Chargois joined his father Alphonse’s photography studio in Cairns in 1919, following service in World War One. With the encouragement of Queensland Camera Club member James A Murray, Chargois contributed bromoil photographs to the club’s salons. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain in 1928 and went on to manage the Chargois Photographic Studio following his father’s retirement.  

Berriman worked as a plasterer and came to Brisbane in 1936 seeking work. He attended photography classes held by the Workers Education Association of Queensland, which was an important training ground for budding photographers. Berriman photographed the HMAS Manoora during World War Two. The passenger ship was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), initially as an armed merchant cruiser, then as the RAN’s first landing ship (Infantry), and was involved the Allies’ operations in the Pacific in 1944–45.