Monthly Archive for November, 2008

George Street at Haymarket, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection.

Yesterday we added our 1000th image to the Commons project on Flickr including this image ‘George Street at Haymarket’ taken by Kerry and Co, c. 1884-1917. In this weeks upload we have some interesting images from Cowan Creek, Fitzroy Falls and the Hotel Australia, which was apparently knocked down to, build the MLC building. We are going to be adding another interesting collection to the Commons soon so keep an eye out for this over the next week or so.

Photography by Kerry and Co
No known copyright restrictions

The P&O wall fountain, Hunter Street, Sydney, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum.

The photo of the P&O Wall Fountain from 1963 was taken recently for Modern Times self-guided tour of modern Sydney ..

Made by a leading Australian sculptor of the 60s, Tom Bass, it became one of the most talked-about fountains in the country in 1964 when editors of OZ magazine published a photograph of the fountain serving as a urinal on the cover of the February issue. They were subsequently sued and sentenced to jail (luckily bailed out in the end) for obscenity and encouraging public urination. Even Tom Bass’ appearance in court didn’t help their defense!

You can check out this and other OZ magazines in our collection search or read more about the P&O wall fountain in the book recently published by the Museum and Melbourne University Press “Modern times: the untold story of modernism in Australia”.

File #00z30240

Photography Sotha Bourn
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

Belmore Markets, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection.

I have been trying to find a contemporary image to match the location of this historical reproduction from our Tyrrell photographic collection for our Tyrrell Today group on Flickr. This has been difficult as I have been trying to match it up to shots of Paddy’s market until I found the street name on the side of the building, zoomed in and read ‘Pitt St’. No wonder the buildings didn’t match up because the Belmore markets were originally situated in what is now Belmore Park next to Central railway station. According to Sydney’s Century: A History the markets were situated on Pitt Street until they were moved in the early 1900s to a larger location closer to Darling Harbour railway goods yards, what is now Paddy’s Markets.

Whilst researching the markets I also came across this beautiful image titled ‘Old Belmore markets, Sydney’ by Harold Cazneaux from the National Library of Australia’s collection.

Photography by Kerry and Co, Sydney, Australia, c. 1884-1917
No known copyright restrictions

Ming Dynasty fortress, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum.

This image was taken when one of our photographers spent a month in China photographing the landscape and the Great Wall for a photographic immersive that featured in our exhibition The Great Wall of China: dynasties, dragons and warriors . He recalls:

“Datong is known as the most polluted city of China. The day was supposed to be sunny when we escaped from Datong to photograph a Ming Dynasty fortress for the exhibition. Instead of a sunny day, a completely grey sky had enveloped everything with a flat light. We were confronted all day with distressing sights of poverty and pollution. The Datong Daneng Charcoal Factory seems to have grown from the soil and destroyed the once majestic fortress which was used for trade with Mongolia during the Ming Dynasty.”

File #00×03740

Photography by Jean-François Lanzarone
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

Il Porcellino replica, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum.

This image was taken earlier this year whilst our photographers adventured to the city to photograph some of its prominent sites.

The bronze statue of a wild boar on Macquarie Street outside the Sydney Hospital is one of several replicas of Il Porcellino sculpture made by Florentine artist Pietro Tacca in the early 17th century. We can admire and rub Il Porcellino’s snout (it is suppose to bring good luck!) thanks to the generosity of the Marchessa Clarissa Torrigiani who donated the statue to the hospital in 1968 in memory of her father Dr Thomas Fiaschi and brother Dr Piero Fiaschi, both prominent surgeons at the hospital. Sydney Il Porcellino is one of the five copies made in 1962 by the Florence foundry, Fonderia Ferdinando Marinelli.

File # 00z28744

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0