Prior to 1900, photography was largely an activity for experts. Cameras were bulky, complicated, required hazardous chemicals, and perhaps most importantly, were expensive. However, when Kodak introduced the ‘Brownie,’ a low-priced, point-and-shoot camera that year, it well and truly changed the game. Photography was finally within the reach of amateurs and the low price allowed […]
Posing for this photograph one day in the 1970s, the senior surf boat crew of the Caves Beach Surf Lifesaving Club were wearing their Speedo swimming briefs – a far cry from the heavy woollen bathers worn in earlier decades. Still, the club’s signature colours of maroon and white remained. They had much to celebrate […]
The marriage of Gustav (Gus) Wagner and Ottilie (Tilly) Schmidt in October 1907 was definitely an important and notable event in the social circles of Jindera and represented the coming together of four of the original German settler families: the Wagners, Roslers, Schmidts, Kalms and if Ottilie’s mother’s family is included, the Schultzs. The young […]
Holding the arm of her new husband Ernest John Phillips, Scottish-born Jessie McGeachie (1883-1947), descended the stairs in the garden of her parent’s home Craig Royston in Toronto, with its terraced lawns leading down to the edge of Lake Macquarie. It was the morning of 9 June 1909 and they had been directed to take […]
It may surprise you to learn that dollhouses were not originally intended as childhood playthings. The first examples of European dollhouses, or dockenhaus in German, come from the seventeenth century. Meaning ‘miniature house’, these were intended for adults and served as a physical display of wealth, class, and privilege. In Mother (Dolls House), artist Michael […]
On the evening of 31 July 1915 the tiered seats of the Sydney’s premier boxing stadium were crammed with 17,000 spectators, and thousands more stood outside. All were impatient for the anticipated Darcy v. McGoorty match to begin. Les Darcy (1895-1917), a 19-year-old blacksmith-turned-professional-boxer from Maitland, was the local drawcard. How did Eddie McGoorty, the […]
In small communities, multi-use spaces are common. Fields become sporting ovals on the weekend, town halls host markets and meetings, and basketball courts double as a learning ground for bike-riders, scooters, and skaters. Art photographer Michael Cook (1968-) has managed to capture this balance of order and chaos in his image Mother (Roller Skating), combining […]
Against a strikingly empty, yet occupied Australian landscape, art photographer Michael Cook (1968-) has managed to capture the heavy, solemn weight of both motherhood and memory in a poignant moment—looking forward but also static, with the past still in easy view. In Mother (Pedal Car), it is easy to see Cook’s own personal journey reflected. […]
Where there are people, there is noise. Yet this photograph by Michael Cook (1968-), part of a thirteen image series, titled Mother (Bicycle), exudes only silence and stillness. Born in 1968 and adopted by white parents who were staunch activists and allies of the Indigenous community, Michael Cook has explored a wide breadth of subjects […]
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