Archdeacon James Kelly had been born in about 1844 in Tipperary in Ireland.

He became a priest, aged 26, and was educated at All Hallows College in Dublin. Ironically here he was a class-fellow of Bishop Dunne, of Bathurst.

James Kelly came to Australia in 1870, and, after being stationed at Bathurst, Bourke, Hill End and Wellington, he was appointed administrator at Orange in 1878. Eleven years later he was appointed parish priest of Carcoar and remained there for 21 years of his life. In 1901, when the priests of the diocese assembled to choose a successor to the late Bishop Byrne, Father Kelly was placed second in the voting. About four years later, as a consequence of the death of Archdeacon D’Arcy of Wellington, he was created Archdeacon of the diocese.

Kindly and unassuming in manner, Archdeacon Kelly won not only the highest esteem of all classes of the community, but the love of the Catholic people, to whom he was bound as friend and pastor. He took a great interest in all movements pertaining to the welfare of the Carcoar district, as well as doing good work on behalf of the Carcoar hospital.

When Archdeacon James Kelly died on 31st May, 1910, in Carcoar most agreed that the Bathurst diocese had lost one of its oldest and foremost clerics. The Catholic Press in Sydney reported the death: - “DEATH OF ARCHDEACON KELLY. A Distinguished Priest. The death of the Venerable Archdeacon Kelly took place at Carcoar on Tuesday, after a lingering illness. The solemn obsequies for the repose of the late Archdeacon’s soul takes place this morning at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Carcoar, where a Requiem High Mass will be celebrated. Bishop Dunne will preside and a large number of priests of the Bathurst diocese will be present. The funeral will move from the church afterwards. The Reverend Fathers Doran and O’Kennedy will be present.”

After operating his photographic business in Liverpool Road at Ashfield for around four years Antoni decided to move to Orange establishing his new business known Orange Art Studios. In the late 1890s he became interested in the mining activity at nearby Carcoar and Lyndhurst. He decided to relocate to Lyndhurst with Rosina, his wife supporting him and often accompanying him on his photographic trips. Later he took up farming at Burnt Yards, but still finding time for photography.

Antoni Lumme was fortunate that he did not have to make his own photographic wet glass plates as he was established at a time when they were being commercially manufactured. They were sold in boxes, the plates wrapped inside in black lightproof paper. Photographers had to be very careful to load their glass plate holders in total darkness.

If he had to use the old wet process which was far from simple. All in total darkness early photographers had to dissolve gun cotton (explosive cellulose nitrate) in ether, alcohol, and potassium iodide to make a thick, clear, flammable liquid called collodion. The mixture had to be flowed onto a clean sheet of glass that had been cut to the required size. The glass was tilted from one side to the other until the coating was even over the glass. The next step was to dip the glass plate into a bath of silver nitrate before putting the prepared plate into a plate holder. The plate holder was then attached to the camera which was focussed. It was then , exposed, before it was taken to the darkroom or light tent to be developed.

The photographer was on a time limit as the wet glass plate could not be allowed to dry, making it necessary to start again. If the photographer was indoors, they had about ten minutes to do the whole job, if outdoors on a warm day, maybe less than six minutes.