John Cato

John Chester Cato
John Cato and Athol Shmith c. 1955
Born	2 November 1926 Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Died	30 January 2011 (aged 84) Victoria, Australia
Occupation	Photographer and teacher
Nationality	Australian
Spouse	Dawn Cato

John Chester Cato (2 November 1926 – 30 January 2011) was an Australian photographer and teacher. Cato started his career as a commercial photographer and later moved towards fine art photography and education. Cato spent most of his life in Melbourne, Australia.

Cato’s career in photography started at the age of 12 as an apprentice to his father, Jack Cato. Returning in 1946 after service in the Pacific for the Royal Australian during WW2, Cato worked as a self-employed photographer before being employed by Argus Newspaper as a photojournalist in 1947. Cato held that position until 1950 when he became a photographer and assistant for Athol Shmith Pty Ltd. in Collins Street, Melbourne and married Dawn Helen Cadwallader in October that year. During this period he undertook research for his father Jack on the latter's The Story of the Camera in Australia published in 1955. In 1955, Cato and Shmith became business partners and started Athol Shmith-John Cato Pty Ltd.

When in 1959-60 the MoMA The Family of Man exhibition toured Australia Cato visited the show several times and was inspired by its humanist themes and optimism. He moved away from the commercial photography world in 1974 after experiencing what he described as "a kind of menopause". Shortly after leaving his partnership with Athol Shmith, Cato began his teaching career and started to focus on fine art photography. Cato was one of the first photographers in Melbourne to give up their commercial practice to become a fine art photographer.

In 1970, four years before leaving his commercial practice, Cato began exploring photography as an art form. His fine art photography drew connections between humanity and the environment, exploring a different theme in each photo essay.

Cato made 'straight' (directly imaged) landscape photographs usually with large or medium-format cameras in order to "explore the elements of the landscape", usually enhancing these in printing. Over a ten-year period, Cato spent two years at a time focusing on a particular symbolic theme in the Australian landscape, often spending a large amount of time in the wilderness observing the conditions and waiting for the perfect opportunity. He would often wait and contemplate a scene for days before finally pressing the shutter when the moment was right. Cato's work was deeply considered and clearly showed his unique perspective on the natural elements around us.