From about March 1862 Bernard Goode had a photographic studio near the Turf Hotel on Glen Osmond Road, Parkside.

By February 1863 Goode had moved to I55 Rundle Street, ‘four doors below the York Hotel’, where he made cartes de visite for 10s per half dozen. In September his business hours were 9 am to 4 pm, portraits for brooches or lockets were 2s each, and he was calling his premises ‘Goode’s Photographic Warehouse’ where he had a wide range of photographic chemicals and apparatus for sale to both professionals and amateurs. In 1864 Goode published a comprehensive 8-page catalogue of photographic material for which he gave a 5% discount on cash purchases of �5 or more.
By May 1864 Bernard Goode had two thousand registered negatives on hand, and his price of cartes de visite had fallen to 8s per half dozen, or 15s per dozen. He also had photographs of local aborigines for sale, and the Register thought that he had been ‘very successful in his efforts to catch the features, expression, and general appearance of the blackfellows, their lubras, and picaninnies. It is interesting to have correct representations of a race which seems to be fast disappearing from this land.’ Twelve different styles were available for 1s 6d each or 7s 6d per half dozen. By September 1864 Goode had found that his premises at 155 Rundle Street were too small to handle the large volume of business he had generated, so he erected a ‘first-class studio’ at 69 Rundle Street and moved there on October 1st.

While a few Adelaide photographers made double portraits as a novelty in 1865, Goode offered to make them for the public: ‘B. Goode begs to acquaint the public of South Australia that he has now completed his experiments, and offers portraits of the same person in two styles on the same card, which gives a very novel and pleasing effect, as they show no line of separation... Specimens to be seen at his establishment.’ The results were described by the Register: ‘They, in some respects, resemble a picture by Mr Freeman, noticed in this paper a few days ago, but differ from that specimen of photographic art in some important details. In both cases the same individual is presented in different costumes and attitudes, recalling to mind the legend of "The Fetch", or a man seeing the ghost of himself. In one of Mr Goode's pictures the man and his double are shaking hands – an effect which requires, we should imagine, very careful arrangement and delicate manipulation to produce it. It is not uncommon to see men on very good terms with themselves; but Toby Twinkle’s is the only previous instance we have met with of a man shaking hands with himself. The other cartes illustrate the same system, and show persons in different positions.’ A later effort by Goode depicted a scene in which ‘a pretty little girl is seen seated in a perambulator, and pushing it from behind, and offering herself a basket of flowers at the same time... Of course the pictures must be taken separately, but it also must be a work of considerable difficulty to preserve the uniformity of the background, and avoid all indications as to the line where the junction between each picture is effected.’ Goode made a self-portrait in which he appeared three times, reproduced in The Mechanical Eye in Australia, but in this case the lines of separation are only too obvious, unlike Marchant’s double self-portrait reproduced on an earlier page of the same volume, in which no line is visible.

Bernard Goode built up a lucrative trade in photographic materials: cameras, collodion, silver nitrate, gold chloride, plate glass, French varnish, frames, cards, all of which were of the best quality and used in his own studio. The chemicals, he said, were made to his special order and suitable for use in a hot climate. He received fresh supplies every month and his advertisements usually included the name of the ship which brought them. In one advertisement he said, ‘Complete sets of apparatus suitable for Lady and Gentlemen Amateurs, with a quantity of chemicals, all packed in box, with instructions in the Art for �10’, and in another it was a set suitable for sheepfarmers for �10, with larger sizes for �15 and �20. His claim that the instructions supplied were so simple ‘any person can soon learn the process’ seems over optimistic, as the wet-plate process was not easily mastered, and country clients receiving their outfit by mail order would no doubt have had many failures before producing their first acceptable image.

Goode also sold magic lanterns, one of which he represented as being a ‘safe investment’ for ‘hawkers, photographers and others’. It was a ‘first-class dissolving view apparatus, with the best set of slides in the colony, consisting of views of London and other parts of Europe, Moonlight Scenes, Moving Figures, Comic Slides, Chromatropes, with adieu and goodnight in the centre. This would be a good speculation for a person travelling in the country. The whole packed in box. Price �30. Several very good Magic Lanterns also on Sale, with Slides and all complete, from 12s. to 50s. each.’

Bernard Goode called himself a photographer and importer for several years, then became B. Goode & Co. about 1868, when he also used the name South Australian Photographic Warehouse for his premises at 69 Rundle Street. In 1867 he advertised in a Perth newspaper that he was ‘now the largest importer of photographic goods in the colonies’, and offered to send chemicals and apparatus by ‘steamer or otherwise if requested.’

In September 1865 Goode took his camera to the top of the partly-constructed Albert Tower (Town Hall, King William Street) and made a series of views of the city, which were listed in the Register:

1. Flinders Street, including Baptist Chapel and Presbyterian Church, and part of Freeman Street, and further on St Paul's and Pulteney Street schoolrooms and Mt Lofty range.

2. Franklin Street, including Methodist New Connexion Church.

3. Part of Grenfell Street, Gawler Place, North Terrace and Parklands.

4. South-eastern portion of city including Unitarian Church, St Andrews Church, and Roman Catholic Cathedral.

5. King William Street and City Bridge road, Bank of Australasia.

6. Congregational Church, Hindmarsh Square, Hospital, part of Norwood and hills in distance.

7. Part of Waymouth Street and north-eastern angle of city.

As the photographs from the tower cost 2s 6d each as against ‘album views’ of churches etc. for 1s 6d, they may have been cabinet size.

The following month Goode again went to the top of the Albert Tower, but this time he had a stereoscopic camera and the Register said his photographs gave ‘a more correct idea of our city than any description of the pen or any delineation of the pencil can pretend to. They present the same phases as the larger photographs referred to a short time ago, but possess the advantage peculiar to stereoscopic pictures in giving the idea of solidity instead of a flat representation of each object. There are in the series also views of Government House, the Institute, Parliament House, and the Railway Station, taken from the lookout on the new Club House, North Terrace. We imagine few presents would be more acceptable to friends of colonists at home than these faithful representations of Adelaide as it is.’

In 1866 Goode was using the Simpsontype (q.v.) process, and in 1867 he used his stereo camera to record scenes during the Royal Visit of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, including views of King William Street and the Triumphal Arch, and interior views of the Grand Exhibition showing the exhibits, ‘the only ones taken’.

In September 1869 B. Goode & Co. advertised that ‘having secured the efficient services of Mr H. Anson (q.v.), of the firm of Anson and Francis, to conduct the portrait department, they will be enabled to pay special attention to outdoor photography, transparencies for the magic lantern, and photographic enlargements, which latter style of portraiture they are now producing by an entirely new process, that enables them to execute enlarged portraits up to life size of unequalled perfection and at very low rates.’ By the end of 1869 Goode had 12,000 registered negatives in his collection.

At the annual exhibition of the South Australian Society of Arts held in December 1870 Goode was awarded a prize for the ‘best six photographic views, 8 x 6 inches’, and copies of his aboriginal photographs were were included in the South Australian exhibit at the 1873 London International Exhibition.

B. Goode & Co. produced their Pocket Album of South Australian Views in 1872. ‘It consists of eight photographs, all of them of a high order of merit, and likely to give a stranger a very favourable impression of the style of Adelaide buildings, the beauty of South Australia, and some idea of the personal appearance of South Australian aboriginals. The first view is of the new Post Office, taken from the eastern side of Victoria Square; the second of the Houses of Parliament; the third of Stow Church and Parsonage; the fourth of a native encampment, with likenesses of several well-known aboriginals; the next of one of the prettiest parts of the Botanic Garden, showing the conservatories, and the Hospital, which adjoins, in the background; the next picture is of the Tynte Street Baptist Church; and the last of the Onkaparinga bridge, on the Strathalbyn Road. The whole of the views are contained in a very small compass, and are calculated to give people at a distance a good idea of what is to be seen in the colony.’

In April 1874 the photographic business of B. Goode & Co. was advertised for sale, which included a lease that had 11 years to run and over 13,000 negatives. The business was taken by W.A. Francis (q.v.), who operated the studio until 1881, when he retired from portrait taking to concentrate on dealing in photographic equipment. Bernard Goode moved to New South Wales where he was associated with studios in Sydney from about 1879 to 1897.

http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/noye/Photogs/Goode_b.htm