There’s an important photography exhibition on at the Albert Kersten Mining and Minerals Museum on the corner of Bromide and Crystals Streets, showcasing an historic collection by famed photographer Wolfgang Sievers.
Sievers is considered one of Australia’s greatest 20th century photographers.
He recorded Australia’s post war industrial period of Australia from the 1950s through to the 1980s.
He came to Australia in 1938 from a troubled pre-war Germany with the aim of escaping the Nazis.
Sievers and his family were traditionally pacifists and heavily involved in the art movements of post first world war Germany with heavy influences from the Bauhaus school of design.
Welcomed into the Australian art community he counted other greats of the period, Max Dupain and David Moore, as close friends.
The images featured in the Broken Hill exhibition are from the three trips Sievers made to the Silver City, the first two in 1957 and 1959 were a commission to illustrate the book The Fabulous Hill.
He made the third trip in 1980 when he was sent out to photograph the mining industry for the Department of Trade and Industry.
The exhibition – which has been running since November – has not been widely publicised yet because there have been a few hurdles along the way, including unusually humid weather over the last month or so, which has proved a challenge as the exhibition space is not a humidity-controlled environment and the mount images have buckled or simply fallen off the walls.
Although the display has been facing issues it has still been open to the public.
Annette Herd, Museum and Marketing Assistant at the Museum is now encouraging locals to get down and see the exhibition.
“The exhibition has been very well received, they love the photos, they love the style and the comments have been very positive.
“I would encourage all the people of Broken Hill to come and see this really special exhibit and have an insight into what broken Hill looked like in the 1950s,” says Ms Herd.
“We had the Probus ladies come through on one of their tours and they loved it.
“For many of the ladies it bought back many memories,” Ms Herd said.
All images on display are courtesy of the Nation Library of Australia in Canberra and the exhibition was researched, curated and organised by John Fadden who no longer works for the museum.
PICTURE: Annette Herd, Museum and Marketing Assistant at the Albert Kersten Mining and Minerals Museum. NOEL FISHER