Charles Edward Boyles started out on his long photographic career during the First World War. Later, during the Second World War, he took many photos of Australian soldiers and visiting U.S. Marines.

As with his football photos, the wartime photos are commercial images to be sold to the people in the photographs.

The photos are sharp and high quality. Unfortunately, however, they are not named.

The earliest known Boyles football photos were also published in major newspapers in 1928 and 1929. This leads to a number of questions about Boyles's work in the 1920's.

Harley Boyles is the son of photographer Charles Boyles. In 2010, then in his eighties, he was interviewed by Ken Mansell for an article about his father. The article, now titled From Tripod to Website became one of the first published writings on Boyles and his work.

The original interview notes have been made available through the permission of both Ken and Harley and provide a fascinating insight.

The State Library of Victoria's digitized version of the VFL Football Record is a useful primary source for football research.

As I searched the Football Record for other purposes, the advertisements kept catching my eye. After a while I began to collect them. Below I have reproduced the most interesting advertisements of the 1929-32 period. Many of the advertisements in the Football Record incorporated a football theme, and I hope you find them of similar interest.

Boyles photos are not always labelled. But there are many clues to help identify a Boyles photo. A few such methods are outlined below.