Archive for the 'Photo of the day' Category

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Books: the best thing since sliced bread!

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 14, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

In this National Year of Reading, it seems appropriate that the Powerhouse Museum would mount a small display celebrating excellence is Australian book design and publishing. Held in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the Australian Publishers Association’s (APA) annual Book Design Awards (BDA) and the 2012 Sydney Writers Festival, Cover story: 60 years of Australian book design showcases numerous BDA catalogues and over 60 award winning and highly commended books, including a selection of impressive award winning photography books.

The image on the cover of the 1998 BDA catalogue (illustrated above) and the conceptual caption, Books: the best thing since sliced bread! printed on the back cover, metaphorically highlight the relevance and significance of books and reading in everyday life.

The catalogue was designed by Dean Lahn of Lahn Stafford Design, Adelaide in collaboration with conceptual photographer Andrew Dunbar. APA invited Lahn to create the catalogue as he had designed a landmark book titled Body Piercing ( a self initiated project which was also produced in collaboration with photographer Andrew Dunbar), that was awarded both the Joyce Thorpe Nicholson Best Designed Book of the Year award and the Collins Booksellers Best Designed Jacket of the Year award in the 1998 BDA awards.

1998 BDA catalogue reproduced courtesy Australian Publishers Association

Post by Anne-Marie Van de Ven

Design by Dean Lahn
Photography by Andrew Dunbar
© All rights reserved

Cec Morrison

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 13, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This photograph from the Tom Lennon Archive shows Cec Morrison, pianist and leader of ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Dance Band. The photograph is dated November, 1933. Tom Lennon was the official photographer for Australian Music Maker and Dance Band News at this time. The photograph may have been used for publicity or for an article about Morrison’s recent world tour.

In this image Lennon has made full use of the piano to place his subject in context and to create a dynamic composition using the diagonal of the piano lid and all of the surrounding angular shapes of the instrument’s interior and the architectural details of the room.

An article in the The Australian Women’s Weekly, published July 15, 1933, reported the impending return of Cec Morrison to Australia after an extensive tour abroad. The Weekly described Morrison as Sydney’s finest exponent of jazz, who, while in New York, received one of the highest honours that could be paid to a visitor when he was invited to by the National Broadcasting Company to broadcast on their network. On his return Morrison planned to introduce a big collection of dance tunes never before heard in Australia and to bring back the latest dance news from England, the continent and America. The article continues:

Early this week a large registered package of nearly a hundred all-English dance compositions formed the first consignment of British music which Mr Morrison has chosen for his Australian listeners. Mr Morrison is making special contracts with music publishers in London for British compositions to be published in Australia, which has hitherto been monopolised by American composers.

Cec Morrison died in 1935, aged only 35, following a car accident in Sydney.

Tom T. Lennon, was a commercial photographer whose studio was at 64 Victoria Road, Drummoyne. The 1796 negatives in the Powerhouse Museum Tom Lennon archive 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. Many images from the Tom Lennon archive have been posted previously on Photo of the Day.

Photography by Tom Lennon 94/63/1-100/9
No known copyright restrictions

Faith, fashion, fusion: on location

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 12, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

One of the locations we visited for our streetstyle photo shoots was the Multicultural Eid Festival and Fair (also known as MEFF) at Fairfield Showground. This annual event, which is typically celebrated on the Sunday after Eid-Ul-Fitr (Ramadan), is the largest of its kind (more than 30,000 people attended last year) and consists of markets, rides, musical entertainment, eateries, showbags and other festivities.

We photographed many very stylish women at the 2011 MEFF event and also interviewed them as part of our research into Australian Muslim women’s fashion. In this photograph, I am interviewing Fadila Chafic with my colleagues Glynis Jones (lead curator, far left) and Kathleen Phillips (audio visual producer). Fadila says:

My name is Fadila. I’m 21 years old and I’m a personal trainer. I’m wearing an abaya that my husband’s aunty made for me (it’s an example of Palestinian traditional dress). The scarf is just from a shop in Lakemba. The ring is from Diva and the bag is from an op-shop kind of thing…The colours I like to wear are bright, vibrant colours – blues, greens, yellows, reds…I love dressing up!

Melanie Pitkin
Assistant Curator,
Curatorial Design & Society

Photography by Sotha Bourn
© All rights reserved

Prince and Kate to the Rescue!

Published by Lynne McNairn on May 11, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

This image shows the museum’s horse-drawn steam pump fire engine racing to the scene of a fire in Broken Hill, c 1905. This horse drawn fire engine spent all its working life at Broken Hill Central Fire Station in Blende Street, Broken Hill, from about 1897 until September 1921, when it was replaced by two motorised fire engines.

Apparently Broken Hill Fire Brigade was called out more frequently to fires than any other single station in New South Wales. When the alarm was raised, bells were set off all over the station, including the stables. This alerted the horses and the doors to their stalls automatically opened to let them out. They lined up under their hanging collars, which the firemen lowered and clasped in place before attaching the reins. Contemporary newspaper accounts advise that the two horses which pulled the steamer were called Prince (the grey) and Kate. Prince worked with the steamer for about 10 years. It was said that Prince attended about 500 fires.

The horse-drawn steam pump fire engine is currently on display in the Powerhouse Museum’s Steam Revolution Exhibition.

Post by Lynne McNairn

Photography by James Wooler
No known copyright restrictions

Faith, fashion, fusion: Fatima Kandil

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 10, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The Sartorialist by American Scott Schuman is one of the world’s top five influential fashion blogs. When Schuman posted a photo of a stylish Muslim woman (Manelle Chawk) on Melbourne’s Chapel street in 2009, the image drew one of the largest and most positive responses from fans of the blog. Inspired by Schuman we sought to capture the diversity and creativity of Australian Muslim women’s style through a streetstyle photo shoot undertaken at events and locations around Sydney.

This photograph is of Fatima Kandil who we photographed on the streets of Ultimo. Fatima describes herself as follows:

Fatima, 25. Teacher. Right and left brained. High on life but can not keep a plant alive. I don’t like fuss, I like laughter. And I just go with it. Life, that is. You work to live, not live to work. Prayer, food and music. That’s all you need! Peace!

Post by Melanie Pitkin
Assistant Curator.

Photography by Sotha Bourn
© All rights reserved

Funeral procession, Peking

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 9, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The ceremonies themselves were elaborate. They were held largely in the home, but processions were an essential element conducted with ceremony through the streets and accompanied by music.

Hedda Morrison, A Photographer in Old Peking, Oxford Univeristy Press, 1985, p.92

The musicians in this photograph are playing traditional instruments as part of a funeral procession. Each musician is wearing a white cone-shaped hat and a robe decorated with white dots which form circular motifs, a design that was used on funeral garments in China at the time the photograph was taken.

Photographer Hedda Morrison, (1908-1991), was born Hedda Hammer in Stuttgart, Germany. She acquired her first camera, a Box Brownie, at the age of 11. In 1931, after completing studies at the State Institute for Photography in Munich and working in the studio of photographer Adolf Lazi (1884-1955), she answered an advertisement in a photography journal for a job in Peking.

In Peking Morrison managed Hartung’s photographic studio from 1933-1938. After her contract expired she continued to work freelance from a small darkroom in her home in Nanchang Street. The young photographer travelled around the city, usually by bicycle, often photographing its inhabitants. This photograph is part of the Hedda Morrison Photographic Collection

Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

Photography by Hedda Morrison
Powerhouse Museum Collection 92/1414-248
No known copyright restrictions.

Rome, 1958 #3

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 8, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

In 1958 photographer Bruno Benini travelled to Italy where he photographed Carla Baldaracci and Janice Wakely modelling clothes by Crestknit, Sportscraft and Ninette.

In this photograph, taken in Rome, Janice Wakely models a dress by Ninette. A carefree holiday mood is created by the model’s relaxed and open stance and large amount of space around her. Other photographs from the same shoot have been posted previously on Photo of the Day.

Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

Powerhouse Museum Collection: 2009/43/1-5
Photography by Bruno Benini
© Benini estate

Jandy the clown

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 7, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This photograph shows Arthur Jandaschewsky as Jandy the Clown. Jandy performed at Sydney’s Tivoli Theatre in the 1930s and 1940s. In his solo act he would struggle on stage with luggage consisting of several boxes that collapsed when he put them down. Jandy then slowly removed his top had and white gloves to reveal the white scalp wig and red pom pom of the clown underneath, as seen in the photograph below.

Arthur Jandaschewsky was born Russia in 1884. He came to Australia from Paris with his family for Fitzgerald’s Circus in 1900 and returned ten years later with the Do-Re-Mi musical trio. Later, as Jandy, he was a Tivoli favourite for 25 years, retiring after The Golden Days Revue in 1962.

The Powerhouse Museum holds Arthur Jandaschewsky’s collection of circus costumes and memorabilia, including starter pistol and cat from Jandy’s ‘dead cat’ act featured in the photograph below.

These photographs were likely to have been produced for publicity purposes. Another photograph of Jandy has been posted previously on Photo of the Day.

References:
Circus! 150 Years of the circus in Australia exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, 1996
Circus! The Jandaschewsky story, Powerhouse Publishing, 1996
Frank Van Straten, Tivoli, Thomas C. Lothian Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 2003.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum 95/28/238 (top) and 95/28/239 (bottom)
Photography by Lemaire Studios
No known copyright restrictions

Sumaya Kandil

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 6, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Faith, fashion, fusion: Muslim women’s style in Australia opens at the Powerhouse Museum this weekend.

Assistant Curator Melanie Pitkin writes:

For me, one of the most exciting parts of developing the Faith, fashion, fusion exhibition were the photo shoots we did in and around the streets of Sydney and at various Muslim events, including the Multicultural Eid Festival at Fairfield Showground and Eid prayers at Lakemba mosque. We sought to capture the diversity of Muslim street fashions from the way cultural background, time and place, mood and budget all help to shape and influence an outfit.

Based on Crooked Rib, an art collective of young Muslim women from Melbourne, we also asked participants to write something about themselves you can’t tell by looking at them. The aim of this was to show how clothing and appearance only tells a small part about a person. The breadth of responses were amazing, as shown here with Sumaya the ‘Artist’, who shares a little about herself below:

Sumaya, 23. I am an artist and I love beautiful things. I love to imagine, design and create. I’ve dabbled in countless art forms, from writing, painting and music, to fashion, makeup and photography. I am inspired by the colours of humankind and the symphony of nature.

Melanie Pitkin, Assistant Curator

Photo by Sotha Bourn
© All rights reserved

Mobinah Ahmad

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 5, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Faith, fashion, fusion: Muslim women’s style in Australia opens at the Powerhouse Museum this weekend. A feature of the exhibition is the street style slideshow reflecting the creativity and diversity of Muslim women’s style. Pictured here is Mobinah Ahmad who not only took part in the shoot but also kindly assisted with organising some of the photo opportunities through her role as Secretary and Cultural Program Coordinator at The Multicultural Eid Festival & Fair.

Mobinah is an Australian Indian Muslim, she recently completed a double degree in Science and Arts at the University of Sydney and is currently doing a Masters in Digital Communication and Culture. She is particularly interested in interfaith dialogue and harmony and is undertaking an interfaith initiative where she will be participating in furthering her knowledge of other religions and cultures.

Post by Glynis Jones
Curator fashion & dress
Design & society

Photography by Sotha Bourn
© All rights reserved