"Photography is inescapably a memorial art. It selects, out of the flow of time,
a moment to be preserved, with the moments before and after falling away
like sheer cliffs"
Teju Cole, Essay in The Weekend Australian, January 16-17, 2016.
The Shadow Remains...
Shadows from the Past
"Photograph everything. Soon enough, it too will be gone.
History needs to be recorded, because if we don’t know the direction
we came from, we have no way of knowing where we are heading"
Les Brown
1870 - 80s
View on the Moorabool River near Viaduct, ca. 1882
Fred Kruger
Born Germany 1831
Arrived Australia 1860
Died 1888
For an interesting commentary on Fred Kruger and some of his images see Art Blart
When a photograph outlives the body it becomes a memorial, even a way to ward off oblivion...
Charles Daniel Pratt
In the late 1920s Charles Daniel Pratt combined his military piloting experience from WW1 with aerial photography and started taking detailed aerial photographs of Victorian locations. ‘Airspy' is a wonderful collection of Charles’ very detailed aerial photographs; focusing on cities, towns and selected locations between the two world wars.
Source: Dannielle Orr, City of Greater Bendigo's Heritage Planner, wrote of Charles Pratt in the Bendigo Advertiser
Introduce me to Charles Daniel Pratt
"All that remained was the photo. It was orphaned from its source, and that source would be remembered by only this one angle, this single point of view, under precisely these lighting conditions."
Teju Cole, Essay in The Weekend Australian,
January 16-17, 2016.
Weston Langford
1960s
Fyansford Cement Works viewed from approach road
Fyansford Cement Works
0-4-OT Perry
Fyansford Cement Works viewed from approach road
The photograph gives us a memory of something many of us have never seen.
Les Brown
1960s
A.R.H.S. Excursion to Fyansford. 1968. The RHS line went through a 1.2 km tunnel to quarry floor. The LHS line went to the locomotive servicing facilities, offices and rail and sleeper stores above quarry.
General view of the Australian Portland Cement Ltd's locomotives, yards and wagon discharge area
The conveyor system that replaced the railway can be seen overhead
A.R.H.S. Excursion to Fyansford. 1968. The RHS line went through a 1.2 km tunnel to quarry floor. The LHS line went to the locomotive servicing facilities, offices and rail and sleeper stores above quarry.
"Photography is at the nerve centre
of our paradoxical memorial impulses:
we need it there for how it helps us frame our losses,
but we can also sense it crowding in
on ongoing experience, imposing closure...
John Henry Harvey
(1855 - 1938)
"...one of the greatest amateur photographers of the 19th Century..."
Fyansford, near Geelong Ca. 1875
Fyansford. Old Mill and Paper Mill
Fyansford, near Geelong Ca. 1875
“What I like about photographs
is that they capture a moment
that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”
Karl Lagerfeld
John Price's Starch Works, Fyansford 1933 Situated above the paper mills at Fyansford and 12 miles beyond the falls.
Cabbage Tree Ned with his team outside the Black Bull Hotel in Malop Street, Geelong 1930
Studio portrait of Aboriginal man and woman
John Price's Starch Works, Fyansford 1933 Situated above the paper mills at Fyansford and 12 miles beyond the falls.
Includes culturally sensitive images
"To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition
in a fraction of a second of the significance of an event.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908) 2004)
Robert Pockley
1940s
The Falls Paper Mill on the Barwon River, ca. 1940
Limestone quarry, Australian Cement Co., Fyansford, ca.1940
Aerial view of the Fyansford Cement Works, ca. 1940
The Falls Paper Mill on the Barwon River, ca. 1940
This must surely be one of the last aerial photos taken of the Cement Works...
Note: number of kilns, aerial conveyor belt and the rail-line connecting to North Geelong
Robert Pockley Studios - Undated
I think this image truly captures the mood of the times...
Detail from Robert Pockley Studio's photograph ~ currently on display in Osborne House, Geelong
Junction of McCurdy Road and Hyland Street Also rail tracks
The cement silos and cement works
Neighbouring Fyansford township and Robert Pockley Studios signage
Junction of McCurdy Road and Hyland Street Also rail tracks
"When people look at my pictures, I want them to feel
the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice ..."
Robert Frank, photographer
Thomas J. Washbourne
Thomas J Washbourne was active photographically: 1868- 1888.
During this period he published a series of stereoscopic photographs of views in Victoria, primarily of the Melbourne and Geelong districts with a focus on everyday life, waterfalls, bridges, towns and views of pastoral holdings and landscapes.
He worked in Geelong during the 1860s, operating a photographic studio in Geelong West (1875 ~1880) and North Geelong (1888).
In the late 1860s Washbourne commenced a series of studio portraits of local Aboriginal people. Examples of Washbourne's work are held by the State Library of Victoria and within the Historic Photographs Collection, University of Sydney.
Sources:
Design and Art Auslralia Online
National Library of Australia TROVE
Fyansford, Geelong ca. 1850-1900
Queen's Bridge from Newtown Hill
King Billy of the Barwidgee People, ca.1870
Fyansford, Geelong ca. 1850-1900
“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”
Dorothea Lange (1895 – 1965)
Harold Parker
Buckleys Falls Barwon River
Morangurk falls on the Moorabool River, ca. 1850 -1900
Rapid on the Barwon, Fyansford ca. 1850-1900
Buckleys Falls Barwon River
“A photograph is a secret about a secret.
The more it tells you the less you know.”
Diane Arbus (1923 – 1971)
George Stawicki
George Stawicki Photography
Wow! What a great surprise!
The photo I have been waiting for...
And, it was there - under my very nose - all the time...
Slideshow includes both overview and detail from George's original 1989 image
Photograph on display in Osborne House, Geelong
Geelong photographer, George Stawicki, specialises in:
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aerial photography
-
weddings
-
portraits
-
buildings and architecture.
Aerial View of Cement Works, Fyansford
Photographed by G. and D. Stawicki, 1981
Source: Geelong Heritage Centre
Check out their Fyansford Collection...
“In photography there is a reality
so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.”
Alfred Stieglitz (1864 – 1946)
Serendipity...
noun ser·en·dip·i·ty \ˌser-ən-ˈdi-pə-tē\
luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for
Serendipity meaning a "fortunate happenstance" or "pleasant surprise" was coined by Horace Walpole in a letter dated 28 January 1754.
Serendipity! I love it...
Like alluvial gold it radiates excitement, overflows with potential, stimulates imagination and initiates further endeavour....
If a Gen Fyansford neighbour hadn't:
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stumbled across my website
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been aware of some photos which her husband had kept; photos that originally belonged to a friend of his father, who, in turn, had received them from his father and
-
been prepared to share them with me
we would have all been so much the poorer...
Thanks, Alexandra Casboult!
Here is my latest Serendipity Image
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What is the photo titled?
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Who was the photographer?
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When was the photograph taken?
Image 1
Stereoscopic photography is the art of capturing and displaying two slightly offset photographs to create a single three-dimensional image. See: Stereo Photography
Gallery of Serendipity Images
Fyansford, Geelong ca. 1850-1900
Dog rock falls Moorabool River ca. 1860-1869
Queen's Bridge, Geelong
Fyansford, Geelong ca. 1850-1900
As forwarded to me by Alexandra Casboult
Altered Reality
The Stereoscopic Era
The PSA definition of Creative is “Altered Reality.”
The image must obviously display a change in natural color, form, shape, or any combination of these three.
Creative images are often montages (a blending or composite of multiple images).
Stereoscopic photography involves the creation of a single image from two images.
Queen's Park Bridge, Geelong
Morangurk Falls on the Moorabool River ca. 1870-1888
Barwon River Valley, ca. 1890
Queen's Park Bridge, Geelong
This unit grows from the Serendipity section.
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3D Stereoscopic Photography by DIY Hacks and How To - Instructables Home
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Stereoscopy by Wikipedia
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Stereoscope by Wikipedia
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Stereophotography by Flickr
“The best images are the ones that retain their strength and impact
over the years, regardless of the number of times they are viewed.”
Anne Geddes (1956)
A somewhat Rural perspective...
From 'Lost Geelong'. Is that Button Hill on LHS?
John Henry Harvey Ca 1875
Richard Daintree, ca. 1860-70
From 'Lost Geelong'. Is that Button Hill on LHS?
"I began to realize that the camera sees the world differently than the human eye and that sometimes those differences can make a photograph
more powerful than what you actually observed"
Galen Rowell
The Barwon River Valley
Postcard
J. W. Stockwell, ca. 1890
Postcard
“Photography can only represent the present.
Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past.”
Berenice Abbott (1898 – 1991)
Outing on the Moorabool
“You don't make a photograph just with a camera.
You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”
Ansel Adams
For the best ever gallery of exhibits
from the famous, now historic,
Geelong Cement Retirees' Museum
“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” Ansel Adams
K. L. Cecil ~ as posted by Peter Cecil
Hey! Great, mate!
And the nuggets keep turning up...
Cheers, Keith!
I love the detail in K. L. Cecil 's image
A must read by Nikki Gemmell
Weekend Australian Magazine, April 14, 2018
Our
reflections & memories
Do it now
Speaking of the non-digital image, Nikki observes,
"...there's a quietness to our antique ways of looking, a totality of focus,
a slowness ..... We believed photos then; yet in the age of social media, we don't, quite. Everything is so posed, deleted, re-shot. The photographer of old captured; now we all curate."
She also comments,
""And, horrors, around a third of photos now taken will remain frozen forever on accounts where the password's been forgotten, or the phone has been lost or broken, or they're trapped on obsolete hard drives, making them inaccessible to us and future generations."
Gone in a flash...
Postcards
A postcard is usually a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. In some places a postcard costs less to post than a letter. Collectors (deltiologists) distinguish between postcards (which require a stamp) and postal cards (which have the postage pre-printed on them). While a postcard is usually printed by a private company, individual or organization, a postal card is issued by the relevant postal authority.
The world's oldest postcard was mailed in London, England, in 1840.
Source: Wikipedia
Postcards of old...
Victoria By Aussie~mobs (flickr)
Fyansford Bridge and Cement Works (Victorian Places.com.au)
A hot day, Fyansford Bridge Creator: Unknown
Victoria By Aussie~mobs (flickr)
Mitch Pilgrim
Ca 1980
Ca 1980
Ce 1980
Ca 1980