Monthly Archive for May, 2009

Page 2 of 4

Bambi models ‘Magpie’ tunic

Published by Paula Bray on May 21, 2009 0 Comments

Photo Nº: 00x11091

This photograph is a part of the Bruno Benini photography archive acquired by the Museum with the assistance of the Commonwealth Government’s National Cultural Heritage Account. It was taken by Bruno Benini in 1957 in the grounds of the University of Melbourne. Model Patricia Tuckwell, known at this time as Bambi Shmith, wears a Hall Ludlow designed black and white ‘Magpie’ tweed tunic with black bows adorning the sides. Described as Australia’s ‘first true couturier’, Ludlow was known for his fine stitching, high technical skill and unique designs, despite having no formal training.

Prior to her successful career as a model, Patricia Tuckwell was a violinist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Here she was given the moniker Bambi and reportedly attracted concert-goers wanting to see her great beauty. On 7 July 1948 Tuckwell married fashion photographer Athol Shmith and in 1951 founded the Mannequin’s Association of Victoria along with other prominent models of the time. After the end of her marriage to Shmith in 1957, Tuckwell moved to England and in 1967 amidst scandal, married George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, becoming Countess of Harewood.

Photography by Bruno Benini
© Estate of Bruno Benini
Post by Alysha Buss, Museum Studies Intern, Curatorial

The moon showing the area of Plato

Published by Paula Bray on May 20, 2009 0 Comments

p3548-362

Sometime around July 1891 Sydney Observatory received a new enlarging lens for the Sydney Observatory astrograph or star camera. This attachment, when combined enabled the observatory to take highly magnified images of double stars, the moon and other objects.

In 1890 H. C. Russell, the Government Astronomer, had made experiments using a Dallmeyer portrait lens and while proud of these photographs Russell felt the new lens combination enabled far more detail to be captured. After a series of trials between April and July 1891 Russell, and the observatory photographer James Short, experimented with the camera, taking photographs of the moon as well as the stars. Russell described these photographs as being, ‘… finer than anything which has been done, or at least published before.

Photography by James Short and Henry Chamberlain Russell, Sydney, August, 1891.
No known copyright restrictions
Post by Geoff Barker, Assistant Curator

Sam Babicci holding saxophone

Published by Paula Bray on May 19, 2009 8 Comments

This image comes from the Thomas Lennon commercial photography archive that has been recently added to the Commons on Flickr. Sydney born photographer, Lennon, ran a studio at 64 Victoria Road, Drummoyne, NSW during the 1930s and 1940s. The collection consists of 796 negatives are largely of balls and dinners held in Sydney, but also include weddings, funerals, work events, parties, portraits, pets, fashion, horse races, and various places and events in Sydney.

This particular negative has this inscribed on it:
‘This negative was stored in a box inscribed in pencil ‘Ces Morrison – 17/11/33 / Sam Babicci – 18/11/33′.’

One of the comments from one of our members in Flickr states:
‘Sam Babicci was a restaurant manager and bandleader in Sydney during the post-war era. He managed Romanos.’

Do you have any information about Sam Babicci? I would love to hear about it if you do!

Photography by Thomas Lennon
No known copyright restrictions

Orange highlights

Published by Paula Bray on May 18, 2009 1 Comment

3425402560_0258e7d8cf

This great image was taken by one of the members in our Modern Times group on Flickr. This image was discussed recently in the comments of this post and I felt it should be seen in its own post on Photo of the Day. The photographer has kindly given us permission to share this fantastic shot.

This is the façade of the American Express building in Shelley Street, Sydney. I must admit I have a fascination for the design of this building and love driving over the overpass on the Bradfield Highway to catch glimpses of the orange, sculptural highlights that hug the front of this building. This shot has been taken below the underpass, so the detail is a little harder to make out but the building is located in a difficult spot to photograph from front on. I would love to see this photographed from the front if anyone is up to the challenge of finding the right position to get this from!

Photography by dexodexo
© All rights reserved.

View from Ways Terrace

Published by Paula Bray on May 17, 2009 2 Comments

View from Ways Terrace

Jean-Francois has been working with Curator, Anni Turnbull, on a self-guided walking tour of Pyrmont and Ultimo. He and Anni have been photographing our local area for this map including the image above. This shot was taken at Ways Terrace a public housing area in Point Street. The locals refer to this area as ‘Point Street flats’. This is an example of early public housing that was designed by the architect Professor Leslie Wilkinson in 1925. This is the shared clothesline at the rear of the building that was designed, along with the verandas overlooking the neighbours’ kitchens, to foster a sense of community amongst the occupants.

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

Working in an office, 1931

Published by Paula Bray on May 16, 2009 0 Comments

Working in an office, 1931.

This photograph of the Australian Inland Mission Office was taken after the completion of the new Scots Church and Presbyterian Assembly Halls building at 44 Margaret Street, Sydney, in 1930.

The labels on the parcels are marked, ‘Australian Inland Mission.’ At this time, around 1931, the building housed the offices of the AIM. Founded by the Right Reverend John Flynn, (visible at the back of the room), the AIM gave birth to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the School of the Air. The Rev. Flynn was also known as ‘Flynn of the Inland’.

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.

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.

Today the building carries an addition of contemporary apartments by architects Tonkin Zulaika Greer.

The image is one of more than 26 produced for the publication: The Presbyterian Assembly Hall Jamieson, York and Margaret Streets, Sydney, New South Wales: Historical and descriptive account with notices of the work and activities of the church conducted from the building. Sydney: [The Church] 1931.

No known copyright restrictions
Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

Benini captures Pauline Kiernan

Published by Paula Bray on May 15, 2009 0 Comments

Photo Nº: 00x11085

In this 1956 photograph, one of Bruno Benini’s first and favorite fashion shots, model Pauline Kiernan wears a strapless sheath evening gown by Theo Haskin of Salon Milano, Melbourne. Pauline Kiernan was a very successful Australian model. Originally from Armidale in rural northern New South Wales, she worked as a nurse before being encouraged by Sydney photographer John Hearder to pursue a modeling career. After attending June Dally–Watkin’s school, Kiernan travelled to London in October 1956 to model Australian clothes. She then spent the next two years in Paris, during which time she modeled for Chanel. However, it was in New York with the Ford Modeling Agency that Kiernan achieved her greatest success, becoming one of Ford’s most sought after models. Eileen Ford said of Kiernan, “In a world where beauty is just a commonplace, this Australian stands out as having the quality and elegance that women all over the world ever seek – and can’t buy”. (Feldman, R. ‘The girl “who owns the world” ’ The Australian Women’s Weekly, January 27 1960, pp 8-9.)

Photography by Bruno Benini
© Estate of Bruno Benini
Post by Alysha Buss, Museum Studies Intern, Curatorial

Exhibit your images in New York!

Published by Paula Bray on May 14, 2009 4 Comments

_dsc01601

Crazy windows

The images above were taken in New York City recently whilst I was travelling to the US to present a paper on open licensing at the recent Museums and the Web 2009 conference. Something that struck me whilst walking through this city is the desire for geometric design in architecture that has taken hold in New York City, something that I am noticing here in Sydney too.

Want your images shown during the New York Photo Festival that runs until the 17th May. This festival aims to “document the future of photography in all its forms”. One great project I have noticed about this festival is the opportunity for everyone to participate by uploading images to ‘We are all photographers now’. Why not join in and have your images exhibited too!

Photography by Paula Bray
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic

Lick eclipse expedition

Published by Paula Bray on May 13, 2009 1 Comment

p3549-1981

This photograph was taken by one of the members of the 1922 Wollal eclipse expedition in Western Australia. Here there were three international parties, the Lick Observatory party, under the direction of W. W. Campbell, a group from the University of Toronto, under C. A. Chant and the Indian expedition supervised by J. Evershed. In addition Australia provided a fourth group from the Perth Observatory, directed Mr. Nossiter.

Amongst the 35 tons of stores and equipment unloaded at Wollal was a forty foot coronal camera which required supporting towers 36 feet high. In this photograph we can see this tower and a person operating a movie camera. The work, of erecting the tower and the ventilated shelters, fell to Campbell with Hoskins as his chief assistant. On the day of the eclipse the taking of the images was done by Dr. Adams and his wife. With it they took two images of the thin short crescents of the un-eclipsed sun and a series of exposures during the total phase.

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

Family portrait in overgrown garden

Published by Paula Bray on May 12, 2009 0 Comments

We have just added another batch of Phillips collection photographs to Commons on Flickr , including this lovely family portrait taken around 1895 – 1905. We don’t know who this family is or where it was taken. Our history notes reveal:

The donor Raymond Phillips was a rotograver and for many years was responsible for the Australian Women’s Weekly cover. His father, Arthur Phillips, was a gold and silver merchant and was possibly the photographer of the glass plate negatives. In 1920, the family moved from Willoughby to Latimer Road, Bellevue Hill. A bachelor, Raymond Phillips remained in the house after his parents’ death. The slides were found in a deal box in the garage.

It is possible that Arthur Phillips, the father of Raymond, was the photographer. The photographer spent some time near Albury in the 1890s and photographed houses belonging to one family. The other scenes include the Shoalhaven River, Como, Sydney Harbour and waterfront scenes, Kirribilli, Willoughby and Neutral Bay.

No known copyright restrictions