Sydney from a balloon, 27 March 1904, originally uploaded by State Library of New South Wales collection.
It's impossible to really tell how wonderful this image is on the little computer screen you are looking at now.
There's just one way to find out. The State Library of New South Wales has made some large scale prints of this circa 1904 panoramic photographs of Sydney and put them on display in the Mitchell Galleries as part of the Nelson Meers Foundation Heritage Collection.
I encourage you to take a look. It would be particularly good for high school level students in the next two weeks' school holidays. when I visited the exhibition today a few tourists were enjoying it too.
It's free. Until January 2010.
Exhibition guide here. If you can't get there, read this. And a beautifully designed guide it is too.
ADDED 11 July 2009: This exhibition at the SLNSW does appear to be slightly recycled from the similar 2001 exhibition held at the SLNSW entitled "A different perspective: Vaniman the acrobatic photographer".
Click on these thumbnails from the 2001 exhibition to get some good views.
Maybe the giant prints currently on show in 2009 are new, although the library's "Achievements 2002/02" report does refer on page 13 to "its giant panoramic scenes of Sydney and beyond."
The current exhibition is no less worthy for having been shown before, and has the added benefit of a current 2009 panoramic view of Sydney Town Hall and the Queen Victoria Building for a then-and-now comparison.
Comments