Monthly Archive for June, 2010

Mods revival

Published by Paula Bray on June 30, 2010 0 Comments Tags: 80s are back, Mods, scooter.

On the 15th and 16th of May this year we held a Mods Revival weekend where we had scooters on display, showed mod films, held mod fashion parades and featured bands, The Introverts, Division 4, The Sets and the Allniters. This was a packed weekend when Mods took over the Museum. This all coincided with our exhibition The 80s are back where Mods are celebrated as part of our subcultures section.

We have added more images from this weekend to a set in our Flickr account.

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
© All rights reserved

We have a new group on Flickr dedicated to wild weather

Published by Paula Bray on June 29, 2010 0 Comments Tags: clouds, Ecologic, extreme, Flickr, wild weather.

This fantastic image of storm clouds was taken by one of the members in our new group on Flickr that is dedicated to wild weather. We have started this group to coincide with our upcoming Ecologic exhibition which is undergoing a major upgrade and will be open in September. Part of the revamped exhibition will discuss climate change. As our climate changes we will experience more and more frequent wild weather events such as floods, storms, hail, and even tornados!

We would love to show your great images of wild weather scenarios here on Photo of the Day but also in the gallery space. If you have any images featuring a storm, hail, rain, dust, tornadoes, floods, or even cyclones then please add them to our new group.

Photography by _liana
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic

What’s in the workshop #11

Published by Paula Bray on June 28, 2010 0 Comments Tags: behind the scenes, conservator, staff, workshop.

This morning we found Sana, a lone conservator, tinkering away in the workshop. The workshop (with its industrial sized saws, angle grinders, nail guns, spray painters) is not the normal habitat of the conservator, except when what they are working on is too big to fit in their labs!

Sana is cleaning up this large scale model of a sugar refinery to be displayed in the upcoming ‘Tinytoreum’.

Photography by Paula Bray
© All rights reserved
Post by Erika Dicker, Assitant Curator

Prince Kung

Published by Paula Bray on June 27, 2010 0 Comments Tags: black and white, collotype prince 1871 China, portrait.

This collotype print is of Prince Kung, uncle to Chinese Emperor Tung-che. It was taken by John Thomson in 1871 and is the first image to appear in his acclaimed book Illustrations of China and its People, published in 1874. Kung held several high military and civil appointments, including being a member of the Supreme Council of China.

Thomson was one of the first photographers to actively work in Asia. He had arrived in Penang in 1862 and in 1865 travelled through Thailand where he met and photographed the King of Siam, King Mongkut. This was the same King who engaged an Englishwoman Anna Leonowens, whose book about her experiences later formed the basis for the movie the King and I.

Photography by John Thomson
No known copyright restrictions
Post by Geoff Barker, Assistant Curator

Coal from the Illawarra powering the pacific

Published by Paula Bray on June 26, 2010 2 Comments

The wagons in this photo are filled with coal mined from the cliffs around Wollongong. The coal might have been on its way by boat to Sydney, to be burnt to generate electricity in power stations. Alternatively, it might have been exported to new Zealand, South America or the Pacific region, to be used as fuel for steam ships. Australia exported almost four million tonnes of coal in 1903, around the time this picture was taken.

Coal is still a major Australian export today. This presents a dilemma, because burning coal produces greenhouse gases, which are contributing to global climate change.

Photograph by Charles Kerry Studio
No known copyright restrictions
Post by Sandra McEwen, Principal Curator

Digital gallery experience

Published by Paula Bray on June 25, 2010 0 Comments Tags: digital experience gallery Benini projections, Sydney Design.

Work is progressing on the digital experience that our Image Resource Centre Coordinator, Jean-Francois, has spent months creating for the upcoming photography exhibition Creating the look: Benini and fashion photography. This is an image of the smaller working model that has been set up in the centre so that we could get a sense of what the experience may be before the final work is installed in the gallery space.

The images that you see in the projections are from the Bruno Benini archive collection that covers over five decades of Melbourne, Australian and international fashion photography. This archive was acquired with funding assistance from the Australian Government through the National Cultural Heritage Account in early 2009.

We will be creating an interview about the making of this digital experience soon that we will share with you on Photo of the Day.

Photography by Bruno Benini
© Estate of Bruno Benini
Immersive creation Jean-Francois Lanzarone
Working model photographed by Paula Bray
© All rights reserved

What’s going on in the photography studio?

Published by Paula Bray on June 24, 2010 0 Comments Tags: Benini, black and white, darkroom, enlarger, photography studio, printing.

Photo by Paula Bray

Photo by Marinco Kojdanovski

Last Thursday in the photography studio we had an all-day shoot producing audio visuals for an upcoming photography exhibition Creating the look: Benini and fashion photography. For one component of this exhibition we are recreating a darkroom in the gallery space with a series of projections that take the viewer through the sequence of the traditional printing process from the enlarger, through developing, stop bath, fixing and print washing.

As we couldn’t film in our traditional darkroom, due to space constraints and lighting issues, we had to film these sequences in our photography studio mimicking the darkroom. We shot some video of the process that we will also be sharing with you that reveals more about the process of creating the projections that will be featured in the gallery space. The exhibition opens 31st July.

Celebration

Published by Kathy Hackett on June 23, 2010 0 Comments

The ink brush, ink, paper and inkstone are the principal implements of east Asian calligraphy, considered both an art and a discipline. The brush is sometimes thought of as an extension of the calligrapher’s arm.

This photograph, taken at the Pyrmont Community Centre Christmas party in 2004, shows the calligrapher creating the Chinese character meaning, ‘celebration.’ Powerhouse Museum photographer Jean-François Lanzarone was photographing the event for the exhibition, Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: a history of Pyrmont and Ultimo.

With thanks to Min-Jung Kim and Tracey Lieu for the translation.

Layar: augmented reality application

Published by Paula Bray on June 22, 2010 1 Comment Tags: application, augmented reality, iphone, Layar, mobile, phone, screenshot, Sydney.

This is a screenshot taken from an iphone that was running a mobile application called Layar. This mobile application works by using the phone’s camera, compass and GPS data to get the location of where the user is and layers data over the camera view. This shot was taken on the corner of George St looking towards the Queen Victoria building and our historic image of a similar view is seen in the lower right-hand corner which allows the user to go to this image on our website or on Flickr to retrieve more information.

If you have an iPhone 3GS or an Android phone then you can use our step-by-step guide to using this augmented reality application whilst walking around the streets of Sydney and retrieve many of our historical images that we have made available for viewing. Just remember to keep the search range on a low setting in terms of the distance.

Developed by Mob

Under the palms

Published by Kathy Hackett on June 21, 2010 0 Comments

Although arched windows and palm trees might first suggest Spain or Morocco, this photograph was actually taken not far from the Powerhouse Museum here in Ultimo. This view from below of the old Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences building on Harris Street was created by Jean-François Lanzarone whilst on assignment gathering images of the local area for the exhibition, Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: a history of Pyrmont and Ultimo.

William Kemp’s Federation Romanesque design was purpose built for the College in 1891. It transformed public architecture in Sydney, replacing historical allusion with patterned brickwork and contemporary sculpture. The capitals of the pilasters and columns of the building are ornamented with plants and animals carved by Gregory MacIntosh and James Fillans. The Australian national motifs may have been inspired by the French Australian artist, Lucien Henry, an influential teacher at the College. A whole generation of decorative artists and sculptors followed Henry in the use Australian flora and fauna in their designs.

About Photo of the Day

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 use in exhibitions and publicity, and to record the many aspects and activities of the Museum - from public events, programs and exhibitions to behind-the-scenes and location shots. We also highlight certain photographic objects from our collection.

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.