Monthly Archive for April, 2009

Powerhouse acquiring Bruno Benini archive

Published by Paula Bray on April 30, 2009 7 Comments

Photo Nº: 00x11069

This black and white photographic portrait of Australian artist Mirka Mora was taken by the Italian-born Melbourne-based fashion photographer Bruno Benini, (see RMIT) in 1974. It is part of the Bruno Benini photography archive (1950-2001) currently being acquired by the Powerhouse Museum with funding assistance from the Commonwealth Government’s National Cultural Heritage Account. (read more about this on ABC News.) While the Benini archive contains mostly fashion shots taken between 1950 and the mid-1980s which capture the changing mood of these decades, it also includes a suite of important portraits of actors, writers, dancers, designers and artists like this classic shot of Mirka Mora from the 1970s.

Photography by Bruno Benini
© Estate of Bruno Benini
Post by Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Curator

Kent Street car park

Published by Paula Bray on April 29, 2009 0 Comments

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This great image comes from the David Mist photographic collection that the Museum acquired in the 90s. This shot appears on page 52 of the publication ‘Sydney, A Book of Photographs’, a collection of David’s photography that includes images taken around the city and inner suburbs of Sydney. David seems to capture a side of candid city life that reveals an interesting view of what life in the city was like, back in the 60s.

David picked up his first camera at the age of 13 and thus began his life-long passion and fascination with photography. He has worked as a fashion photographer in the 50s in London and decided to come to Australia in 1961 to try the fashion industry whilst also recording life in Sydney, that went on to be published in his book.

Photography by David Mist
© All rights reserved

Get Bent

Published by Paula Bray on April 28, 2009 0 Comments


Get Bent, originally uploaded by StephenMitchell.

This interesting image was taken by one of the members from our Modern Times group on Flickr . This building was photographed in Adelaide and the caption with this image reads

‘Adelaide is seeing some very interesting architecture. This facade has more form than function, yet surprisingly it fits in. But I bet it’s not to everyone’s taste!’

It is really great to see members adding more images to our group on modernism that was set up when the exhibition Modern Times: the untold story of modernism in Australia was showing at the Museum. This exhibition is no longer on at the Powerhouse but has moved to the Heide Museum of Modern Art . We have over 600 images in this group now. Keep up the great work.

Photography by Stephen Mitchell
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

Skipping girl sign

Published by Paula Bray on April 27, 2009 3 Comments

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Neon lighting was invented early in the 1900s and by the middle of the century cities had been transformed, their skylines alive with the glowing colours and jerky animations of neon advertising signs.

Erected in 1936, the Skipping Girl Vinegar sign was possibly the first animated neon sign in Melbourne. ‘Little Audrey’, as she was affectionately known, became a popular landmark in Victoria Street. The sign in the photograph is not the original Skipping Girl, but a smaller replica built in 1970. When the vinegar factory moved to Altona in 1968 the company scrapped the original sign, but public outcry led to the building of this new version. By 2000 Audrey had stopped skipping, but sponsorship and fund-raising efforts by heritage organisations in Victoria will see her alight and jumping rope again soon.

Mimmo Cozzolino (MimmoC) took this night-time shot, which shows Audrey’s rope in its four positions. Mimmo’s many interests include Australian advertising signage and packaging and he has added a number of his photographs to the Powerhouse Museum’s Flickr group Sign design in Australia . I wonder how many of our blog readers remember when animated neon signs turned their own city or town into a night-time delight.

Photography by MimmoC
© All rights reserved
Posted by Megan Hicks (meganix), Sign Design in Australia team

‘Cage a lapins’ (Rabbit’s cage), Goldbrough Mort building, Harris St

Published by Paula Bray on April 26, 2009 0 Comments

Photo N¼: 00z32943 (300K)

In the narrow court the sun struggles to reach the floor. The balconies in this dark and dull atmosphere seem to be rabbit cages…and two of them haven’t had their breakfast yet…‘Est-ce ainsi que les homes vivent…?’ (Is it the way people are living…?) Louis Aragon (1897-1982)

Photography and post by Jean-Francois Lanzarone
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

Still a chance to win our new Commons book

Published by Paula Bray on April 25, 2009 1 Comment

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If you would like to win a copy of our new print-on-demand photo book, titled ‘Then and now: stories from the Commons’, then add a comment to this post about what it means to have Powerhouse Museum content freely available on the Commons on Flickr. The book is a pilot project produced with comments made by the Flickr community and the great research, tags and comments that they have added to make our collections richer and more accessible. Next few comments stand a good chance!

This image comes from the Thomas Lennon collection, added to the Commons recently. The little girl is holding a ‘Life Savers’ toy truck that has the body of the truck is in the shape of a roll of Life Saver sweets, with the lettering ‘LIFE SAVERS / ASSORTED …’ written on it. The Museum holds an earlier (1920s) example of the truck which you can see here.

Photography by Thomas Lennon, 1939
No known copyright restrictions

Working in an office, 1931

Published by Paula Bray on April 24, 2009 0 Comments

Working in an office, 1931

This photograph was taken after the completion of the new Scots Church and Presbyterian Assembly Halls building at 44 Margaret Street, Sydney, in 1930. The original Scots church was demolished to widen York Street and allow for tunnelling when work began on construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the 1920s.

The wall calendar visible on the left hand side of the photograph displays the page for June, 1931. At this time the building housed the offices of the Australian Inland Mission. Founded by the Right Reverend John Flynn, the AIM gave birth to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the School of the Air.

In 1928, an architectural competition for the design of a new building was won by Mr Oscar Beattie of Mssrs. Rosenthal, Rutledge & Beattie, Architects. Work commenced in July the following year and the foundation stone was laid on November 30, 1929, coinciding with the stock market crash on Wall Street and the beginning of the Great Depression. As a consequence of the economic climate, the building was completed to only five levels instead extending upwards to the 150 foot height limit of the day as originally planned.

No known copyright restrictions
Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

The assembly of the astrographic camera

Published by Paula Bray on April 23, 2009 0 Comments

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The two stereoscopic images on this contact sheet show the Sydney Observatory astrograph being set up on the racetrack at Goondiwindi, in Queensland, to observe the 1922 eclipse of the sun. Sydney Observatory moved the star camera (astrograph) from its Redhill Observatory in Sydney to a specially built enclosure on the racecourse at Goondiwindi.

Cooke decided to follow the advice of the Astronomer Royal and set up a driving clock for the star camera which would accurately follow the course of the star rather than referring to a guide star. Unfortunately, the only drive clock available was one used in a Grubb chronograph. Designed to carry only few pounds the group managed to overbalance the telescope, weighing over a ton, and use the driving clock. Not unsurprisingly it was subject to the occasional breakdown.

Photographer unknown, used at Sydney Observatory, Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia, September, 1922.
No known copyright restrictions
Post by Geoff Barker, Assistant Curator

Port Botany sign

Published by Paula Bray on April 22, 2009 0 Comments

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We live in a world of signs, a world of compressed messages designed to grab our attention. At the Powerhouse we have embarked on a project about signage. As part of this project we have started up a new Flickr group called Sign Design in Australia. After only a few months we have over 180 members and they have been posting photographs that are funny, nostalgic, puzzling, prosaic – and sometimes just stunning.

This photograph of the entrance sign at Port Botany was posted by one of the group’s most prolific contributors, ablekay47., who likes documenting “unusual urban and cultural things that might otherwise go unnoticed”. His interest in industrial sites led him to Port Botany, an immense container terminal on the shores of Botany Bay in Sydney. Interestingly, the ‘Port Botany’ lettering of the sign is lit at night by external lights and not from within. We like ablekay47’s shot of the sign, because it suggests a struggle for domination between the natural world (the clear blue sky) and the industrial.
We invite you to take a look at all the photographs taken by ablekay47 and our other sign enthusiasts. And perhaps you might like to add some of your own.

Photography by AbleKay47
© All rights reserved
Posted by Megan Hicks (meganix), Sign Design in Australia team

2 cans in a street

Published by Paula Bray on April 21, 2009 0 Comments

Photo N¼: 00z33274 (300K)

They stand neatly next to each-other in Bulwarra Road with their pink straws.
Where do they come from, when were they abandoned and who put them so delicately against this rusty corrugated wall? They are clean and shiny but they won’t last long. They’ll be recycled and they’ll never come back to taunt the rusty corrugated wall in Bulwarra Road.

Photography & post by Jean-Francois Lanzarone
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0