Duane Hart was born in Hawera, Taranaki New Zealand, and after leaving school at 15yrs he gained a trade as an engineering draughtsman. He also spent 10 years training and racing as a 400m sprinter in New Zealand and competing for Taranaki and Waikato, then moving to London to race for Croyden and then 1st division club Belgrave in the UK. (His pb for 400m is 47.3 sec)
Living in London for 2 years, he worked for the engineering department at the London Underground and Harrods Department Store, while honing his skills as a freelance sports photographer.
Arriving in Australia in 1992 with his wife Helen and together they started the SportingImages Photo Agency in a one bedroom unit at 1/89 Melton Rd, Clayfield Brisbane, later relocating the office to a warehouse in New Farm.
It quickly grew to one of the largest sports photo agencies in Australia and was the world's first word searchable photo library on the early internet in 1996.
Moving the agency to Lindel St , Kippa Ring Redcliffe in 1999, and then 96 Dover Rd Redcliffe in 2004, Duane was director of the agency for 22 years, working with fellow Redcliffe photographer Michael Broadbent (Broad Images team photography)
In that time Duane specialised in sports photography and covered 5 Olympic Games (Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012) as one of 4 Australian official EP freelance sports photographers. Duane also covered 3 Commonwealth Games (Auckland 1990 , Canada 1994 and Kuala Lumpur 1998) as well as Rugby Union and Track and Field World Championship events.
In 1995 he self-published an Athletes Training Diary with many of his best photos and his work featured in many of Australia's top sporting publications.
Along with many professional events covered , Duane's agency Sporting Images also covered junior and club sport throughout Queensland and NSW, and was the official photographer for all Queensland School Sport state championship events for over 20 years.
His agency also was the official photographer for most of Queensland State associations including Gymnastics, Touch, Hockey, Netball (NSW and Queensland), Queensland Rugby League, Hockey (Queensland and NSW) Rugby Union, Little Athletics, Swimming, Diving, Polocrosse, Ice Skating, Rollersports, Soccer, Basketball, Cricket and QAFL.
In the 1990's Duane was the official photographer for many of the states professional teams, including the Brisbane Broncos, South Queensland Crushers, Strikers Soccer, Bullets Basketball, Queensland Reds, Queensland Cricket, Athletics Australia, Australian Touch and many other Australian sporting teams and organisations.
Awards include winning the 1997 Australian AIPP Editorial Photographer of the year
and he also won the 2008 International Aperture Award World Sports Photographer of the Year, and was interviewed on ABC in 2008 before covering his 4th Olympics in Beijing.
Duane featured in Channel Seven's pre 2000 Sydney Olympics programme.
Duane also featured with his daughter Holly, in 2009 on the Channel 9 Australian TV Show Totally Wild on a Feature on Sports Photography and was one of the featured photographers in the Channel 9 documentary "Behind the Lens" that aired in August 2014.
In 2011 Duane started Peninsula Framing and The Photo Restoration Studio in Redcliffe and specialised in photo restoration of old photos. Local Redcliffe history is also a passion for him for over 20 years and he has collected a large collection of original land sale maps, books and photos.
He published his second book, a republished 1932 Tourism Guide to Redcliffe in 2016 and his third book The Pictorial History of Redcliffe featuring restored local historic photos, maps and advertisements, was published in 2017.
His fourth book The Pictorial History Of Redcliffe and the Moreton Bay Region" (1950s to 1980s) together with his partner Casey Thompson, was published in August 2022.
All books are available to view and purchase at www.redcliffebook.com.
Sporting Images closed its online website in 2014 however the Sporting Images facebook page shows some of the events covered over the years: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sportingimages
Duane Hart is listed on the wall of the Redcliffe Wall of Fame:
A collection of portrait and information honouring the achievements of individuals who have influenced and shaped Redcliffe. The collection is in the Jetty Arcade at 139-141 Redcliffe Parade.
For a complete list of people who appear on the wall click on the following blog post: