Men from Mars

October 9th, 2012 by Lynne McNairn

Shop, Geelong, Victoria, paper, Wolfgang Sievers, Australia,..." title="98/99/5 Photographic print, black & white, "Men from Mars", Ford Motor Company Spray by Wolfgang Sievers" width="600" height="482" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15047" />

This photograph taken in 1952, shows two workers in the spray booths at the Ford Motor Company plant in Geelong, Victoria. The men are wearing overalls with simple cloth masks to cover their faces. It is interesting to note that people doing this type work today would be wearing full face cover and subject to stringent safety codes.

The photograph was first exhibited as a mural in 1953 at the ‘New Visions in Photography’ exhibition , Hotel Federal, Melbourne which featured the industrial and architectural photography of Wolfgang Sievers and the fashion and portrait photography of Helmut Newton. It was later given the title ‘Men from Mars’.

This reprint was acquired directly from the photographer, Wolfgang Sievers, AO (18 September 1913 – 7 August 2007). The reprint was digitally generated from a photographic print (rather than from the negative which had been lost). This was a noteworthy fact in 1998 when the museum acquired this photograph!

Photographer Wolfgang Sievers, 1952 (98/99/5)
No known copyright restrictions
Post by Lynne McNairn

Tags: assembly lines, Ford Motors, motor car manufacturing, spray painting, Wolfgang Sievers

The Powerhouse Museum's Photo of the Day blog features a new image each day, chosen from the Powerhouse Photo Library.

The majority of these images have been taken by Museum photographers for a variety of purposes such as for exhibitions, of objects in our collection, events, behind-the-scenes and location shots. We also feature many images taken by our Flickr community and from our visitors. We hope you enjoy the photographs and stories.

The licensing of each image varies however we are trying to release as many as possible under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.1 license.