Author Archive for Iwona Hetherington

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Royal Garden Party

Published by Iwona Hetherington on July 15, 2011 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This beautiful chiffon hat decorated with silk roses is called `Royal Garden Party’ and belongs to Mr John’s `Coronation of Spring and Summer’ collection from 1953.

Mr John (a.k.a. John P. John) of New York was probably the greatest milliner of his time, famous for his beautiful hats and an extravagant lifestyle. He created hats for stars in movie classics such as Gone With the Wind by Victor Fleming, Shanghai Express by Josef von Sternberg, Death in Venice by Luchino Visconti, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Howard Hawks, also theatre productions, advertisements, magazines and a long list of the rich and famous.

During his over fifty year long career, Mr John was widely admired and honoured with the highest prizes – he was the first milliner to receive the prestigious Neiman-Marcus Award. The obituary published on June 29th 1993 by The New York Times described him “as famous in the world of hats as Christian Dior was in the realm of haute couture”. Strangely enough, whilst the Dior’s name became a household word, Mr John, known once an “Emperor of Fashion”, disappeared into obscurity.

Powerhouse Museum has in its collection approximately 200 prints featuring models wearing hats made by Mr John.

Photographer unknown
Powerhouse Museum Collection: A9467-11/17/2

‘Kugellager’ by Adolf Lazi, Germany, 1938

Published by Iwona Hetherington on June 25, 2011 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This photograph was taken in 1938 by Adolf Lazi (1884-1955), a commercial German photographer from Stuttgart associated with the Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity, new realism) movement.

Concrete pipes, turbines, iron bars and other ‘unaesthetic’ objects, removed from their everyday context and shown in a new dramatic way were often chosen as subjects for the new realism photography. The above close-up of a ball and roller bearing on a mirrored surface is a good example of Neue Sachlichkeit aesthetics.

In keeping with the new realism principles, Lazi emphasized the need for analytical approach and technical precision in photographic work. Sharp focus and clean lines were endorsed and favoured over the vagueness and “artistic blur”. “A hair must remain a hair” reads a quote from Lazi Archiv, the website dedicated to his work. This type of photography found its direct application in advertising and is still widely practiced today.

Adolf Lazi died in 1955, but The Lazi Academy is still operating under the management of his son Adolf Ingo Lazi.

For the Powerhouse Museum Adolf Lazi’s work is also significant due to its link to the Hedda Morrison collection. Hedda was a volunteer in Lazi’s studio in Stuttgart from September 1931 to August 1932.

Photography by Adolf Lazi
Not known copyright restrictions

Two men on a stairway

Published by Iwona Hetherington on June 12, 2011 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This photograph comes from the Gordon Andrews Design Archive which was acquired by the Powerhouse Museum in 1989. It was taken by Andrews during his visit to the Paris International Exhibition in 1937. The unusually high vantage point from which the image was taken results in the figures appearing dwarfed, vulnerable and secondary to the surrounding architecture. Apart from indicating Andrews’ interest in modernist aesthetics, the image also seems to capture the quintessence of the 1937 Expo. The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, held two years before the outbreak of the Second World War, was dominated by the confrontation of two raising totalitarian regimes – The Third Reich and the Soviet Union. Both countries used their supersized imposing pavilions to manifest their power and aspiration for world hegemony.

Photography by Gordon Andrews
No known copyright restrictions

The Flying Fruit Fly Circus

Published by Iwona Hetherington on April 11, 2011 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This photograph was taken by the Museum’s photographer Marinco Kojdanovski back in 2006. It shows acrobats from the The Flying Fruit Fly Circus. The group was performing at the Museum in January 2006 at the opening of The Great Wall of China: dynasties, dragons and warriors exhibition and the associated holiday program. “Teetering on the Wall” was a show developed especially for the exhibition, with many of its acts drawing on the ancient Chinese circus tradition.

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
© All rights reserved

Before the ceremony

Published by Iwona Hetherington on March 29, 2011 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Tibetan monks from the Dakpa Khangtsen Drepung Loseling monastery in the South Indian state of Karnataka spent eleven days at the Powerhouse Museum in December 2009 creating three sand mandalas. On the twelfth day these beautiful, amazingly detailed creations were ritually dismantled to emphasize impermanence of existence – one of the fundamental doctrines in Buddhism; sand was swept into containers and dispersed into the sea with the intention of sharing the mandalas’ blessings and healing powers with all.

Emma Bjorndahl, who was working as a photographer at the Museum at that time, accompanied the monks to Watsons Bay to document the ritual. In this photograph she captured Geshe Tenzin Demchok walking along the Camp Cove beach shortly before the official ceremony began.

Photography by Emma Bjorndahl
© All rights reserved

A man on the wall

Published by Iwona Hetherington on March 27, 2011 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This photograph was taken in May 2006 by our photographer Jean – Francois Lanzarone.

Jean-Francois went to China to take photographs for the Great Wall of China publication and exhibition which was on display at the Powerhouse Museum between September 2006 and February 2007.

Many of Jean-Francois’ photos from the trip were previously featured in this blog.

He took this picture of a man fixing a neon light on a high rise building from his hotel room on Jianshe dajie not far from the Shanhaiguan Pass – the place where the Great Wall meets the sea at Bohai Gulf on China’s east coast.

Photography by Jean-Francois Lanzarone
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
© All rights reserved

Car chassis on mirror by Adolf Lazi, 1934

Published by Iwona Hetherington on March 21, 2011 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This photograph was taken in 1934 by Adolf Lazi (1884-1955), a commercial German photographer from Stuttgart associated with the Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity, new realism) movement.

Concrete pipes, turbines, iron bars and other ‘unaesthetic’ objects, removed from their everyday context and shown in a new dramatic way were often chosen as subjects for the new realism photography. The above close-up of the front section of the car placed on a reflective surface is a good example of Neue Sachlichkeit aesthetics.

In keeping with the new realism principles, Lazi emphasized the need for analytical approach and technical precision in photographic work. Sharp focus and clean lines were endorsed and favoured over the vagueness and “artistic blur”. “A hair must remain a hair” reads a quote from Lazi Archiv, the website dedicated to his work. This type of photography found its direct application in advertising and is still widely practiced today.

Adolf Lazi died in 1955, but The Lazi Academy is still operating under the management of his son Adolf Ingo Lazi.

For the Powerhouse Museum Adolf Lazi’s work is also significant due to its link to the Hedda Morrison collection. Hedda was a volunteer in Lazi’s studio in Stuttgart from September 1931 to August 1932.

Photography by Adolf Lazi
Not known copyright restrictions

Hong Kong at night

Published by Iwona Hetherington on February 18, 2011 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

German-Jewish émigré photographer Henry Talbot (b. Henri Stephen Tichauer, Hindenburg, Germany 1920) passed away in Sydney in 1999. He is survived by his wife Lynn and sons Neale and Jean-Paul, as well as many of the models with whom he worked during his long career as a fashion photographer and photography teacher.

One of the most iconic of Talbot’s images is this beautiful night time shot of Australian model Janice Wakely, wearing a Hall Ludlow-designed gown of printed Everglaze cotton, on the streets of Hong Kong in 1960.

The print, and related colour transparency, were acquired by the Powerhouse Museum directly from the photographer in 1993. These now form part of a much larger Henry Talbot collection held by the Museum. Images from this Hong Kong series by Henry Talbot were reproduced in F. Patience’s fashion editorial spread titled ‘West meets east’ published in Australia’s Woman’s Day with Woman magazine on 27 June, 1960.

I particularly like the way the colourful neon lights contrast with the black background and draw the viewer’s eye into Wakely’s beautiful sinuous form and the crisp, elegantly tailored dress that she wears. There’s also a playful, interactive documentary-style element to the image, where the photographer captures local people interacting with the scene. This provides insight into the process of working on location as a fashion photographer. Knowing the photographer’s charming personality and friendly nature, I think that he may have made a comment while he was working, which made the children to his right in the foreground, look forwards, or even towards him, and chuckle.

Photography by Henry Talbot
© All rights reserved
Post by Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Curator

Margaret Lord

Published by Iwona Hetherington on February 2, 2011 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This is a photograph of Margaret Florence Lord (1908 – 1976) – a precursor of interior design in Australia. It was taken in Lord’s flat in Potts Point by a prominent Sydney photographer Laurence Le Guay in 1944, the same year she published her first book Interior Decoration. A Guide to Furnishing the Australian Home.

The content of the book comprised of notes originally prepared for a correspondence course for service personnel organised by the Army Education. The overwhelming popularity of the course led to the publication of the book which is now considered the first Australian monograph on interior design. She published two other books, an autobiography titled A Decorator’s World: living with art and international design in 1969 and Interior Decoration in Practice in 1971 and also wrote numerous articles for magazines such as Australian Home Beautiful and The Home.

According to Lord

“interior decoration is a civilised art with a primitive appeal; it strikes deep down to the fundamental instinct of home-making which is inherent in all of us. This instinct needs direction and education if we are to satisfy our natural desire for surroundings that provide both for our need of comfort and our love of beauty”

(Lord 1944, p.1).

Interiors designed by Margaret Lord include Sydney University Union, the Shell Company’s Carrington Street building, Johnston and Johnston’s factory at Botany, Australian Glass Manufacturers’ factory at Waterloo, Wrigley’s Ltd building at Rosebery, the Sydney Club, the Memorial Hall at Shore, Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, Women’s Hospital, Melbourne, and the ships Monowai, Manoora and Kanimbla.

The Powerhouse Museum’s extensive archive of the designer consists of diaries, photographs, guidebooks and notes regarding her travels, scrapbooks, news cuttings, typescripts of speeches, broadcasts, articles, and more.

References:
Denise Whitehouse, Margaret Lord, Swinburne University of Technology, 2008
Margaret Lord, Interior Decoration. A Guide to Furnishing the Australian Home, Ure Smith, 1944.

Photography by Laurence Le Guay
Not known copyright restrictions

Dancers

Published by Iwona Hetherington on January 29, 2011 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This photograph was taken in February 2008 and features Chinese dancers performing during the opening of Shaanxi Province Folk Art Exhibition which was held at the Museum as a part of the City of Sydney’s Chinese New Year Festival.

Photography by Sotha Bourn
© All rights reserved