Monthly Archive for February, 2009

This sign was designed and photographed by Gordon Andrews, one of Australia’s leading 20th century designers, around 1958. The sign cleverly captures attention by playfully jumbling up the letters and simplifying the message by deleting the word ‘the’. Andrew’s slightly cryptic result forces the viewer to linger a little longer to decipher the sign’s message. The browning grass and trodden earth on the top left of the photograph hints at why the sign was required in the first place – to allow newly planted grass time to establish itself in its new environment.

Can you recognise which font Gordon Andrews selected for the sign? Want to see more sign and typography designs? Then visit, join and participate in our new Flickr group Sign Design in Australia.

Photography by Gordon Andrews
© All rights reserved
Post by Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Curator, Design & society.

Outdoor umbrellas, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum.

This shot was taken at the world-renowned Harry Seidler designed Australia Square. This is the view looking down on the outdoor eating area usually packed with office workers at lunchtime. The Museum photographers visited a number of sites in Sydney fundamental to modernism in Australia to be photographed for the exhibition Modern Times: the untold story of modernism in Australia. The exhibition, which finishes today, explores the city and its skyscrapers, milk bars and swimming pools, where modernism profoundly reshaped Australian life. The exhibition is traveling to the Heide Museum of Modern Art and will be open on the 21st March.

File #00z28553

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

Stack
Image by shealo
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Come to grief, Kiandra Snow Races
Photography by Kerry and Co
No known copyright restrictions

The image above titled ‘Stack’ was created by a Flickr member who has utilised the image ‘Come to grief, Kiandra Snow Races’ from our Tyrrell photographic collection, loaded to Commons project on Flickr. It always intrigues us when we find out how our ‘no known copyright restriction’ images are used and it is important for us to know why they are being used. Today’s post is a Q&A I did with the creator of this work. Many thanks to shealo for her contribution to this post and for allowing this to be shared.

Paula:
How did you come across our Tyrrell image in Flickr?

Shealo:
Last year I got involved in the National Library’s remix project Re-Picture Australia. The Library released a bunch of images under CC licenses and encouraged people to remix them. I loved the process of mashing up the photos. It is a great way of engaging with historical media. So I’ve been on the look out for more images to play with. I think someone might have posted something about the PHM’s Flickr Commons contributions on Twitter.

Paula:
What made you reuse the image ‘Come to grief, Kiandra Snow Races’ from the Tyrrell photographic collection?

Shealo:
The Snowy Mountains are a favourite family stomping ground, so I’m particularly nostalgic about the area. Both my folks have old photos and footage of them skiing in the 50s and 60s and I’ve always loved them. The Kiandra image shows a guy having a ‘stack’ – a familiar occurrence to anyone who has attempted skiing or snowboarding – it’s an image that has universal appeal.

Paula:
You have licensed your work under Creative Commons; can you tell us why you chose that license?

Shealo:
I licensed the work under CC as I am happy for people to remix and share the work. I think the remix process is really powerful and that derivative works should be celebrated in our culture. Plus, it’s in keeping with the spirit of the image being shared with me, by the Museum.

Paula:
In your image Stack and Ship wrecked souls you acknowledged the original source of the image coming from our collection, why did you do that?

Shealo:
It gives context to the work, and it’s a way of saying ‘ta’ to the Museum for making it available to me.

Paula:
Has your knowledge of the Museums photographic collections increased at all since you found this image in the Commons?

Shealo:
Definitely.

Paula:
Can you tell us what it means to have open access to the historical images on the Commons project on Flickr, from an artist’s perspective?

Shealo:
It’s invaluable. I hope more individuals and institutions begin sharing their collections with the public in this way. It just makes sense to give the public access to historical documentation via the web.

This image taken in our photographic studio was shot during Student Fashion back in 2007. This temporary exhibition highlights graduating fashion students’ work. Since 1993 the Museum has been putting on this small display of final year students’ work highlighting their creative designs.

This design, created by Sophie McGinn, was part of her graduate collection titled ‘Futurism’. The collection was all white, with white on white screen printed silk, denim and silk jersey. Sophie spent the day in our studio, during Student Fashion, working with Marinco to photograph some of the other works in her collection.

File#00×06081

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
© All rights reserved

sydney opera house, originally uploaded by simon62.

This great image, with amazing depth of field, was taken by one of the members in our Modern Times group on Flickr . It presents such a unique perspective of the Sydney Opera house. The photographer states:

“Originally shot 45 degrees rotating to the right. Thought the tiled area in the foreground (which is part of the main sail) looked better as a “floor”. I wanted to approach this iconic building to see if I could get a different perspective. I started looking at it from different angles. The notion of what is surface that we walk on as apposed to the rise of a wall and where the sky is, is what I was trying to challenge”.

Photography by simon62
© All rights reserved