The
year 1873 was running on and his thoughts must
mainly have centred around his proposed new home in
North
Sydney. He had found several acres of ground, facing
Union Street, exactly to his taste-the area was
across the harbour on the 'Shore' in that locality's
most
commanding position. There was also a house in
nearby Susannah Street which could be occupied
while the new building operations were in progress.
The building must be one that would be worthy of a
man
whose fortune ran to five figures - and it must
have a tower, an eminence from which he and his friends
could feast their eyes on the glories of the harbour.
And
why stop with "eyes", why not some
great photographs that would imperishably record
the glorious prospect?
Studios of A&A Photographic Co Tambaroora
St Hill end, showing members of the staff (three figure
on right) and passers-by. The display shows photographs
of Sydney Harbour and one of the newlt completed (1870)
western wing of the Sydney GPO. (photograph by Merlin,
No 18821)
Photography
- that word of happy associations (for almost a year,
on and
off,
Merlin had been working
on the great project). He had equipped his
photographer with a large new caravan(11) that
would conveniently handle the 10' x 12" plates
- the size which had been decided upon as the standard
for the project. Already
a magnificent series of exposures had been completed and stored away
in specially made and fitted cedar boxes. Sydney, Hill End and Hargreaves
had been covered,
and so had Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo, Carcoar, Goulburn, and several
other areas. He began to wonder whether he might not go further than
photographs
and introduce a note of reality by including mineralogical specimens
and models of mining machinery, as well as stuffed birds and marsupials?
That
would be a worthwhile project and one on which he would be willing
to spend as much as £15,000. As to the photographs - would
mere albums be
striking
enough? - there
was the new Graphoscope device for magnifying photographs and
making them appear more brilliant.
And
then, one morning in mid-winter, Merlin came to him
bearing serious news; he said that, owing to failing
health,
he could no longer carry
on with the
photography. Yet the great project need not be abandoned; he believed
that the enterprise could well be carried on by his Melbourne assistant,
Charles
Bayliss(12).Though but a young man
of twenty-three, he had been associated with Merlin for almost seven
years. He could recommend his services
with the greatest confidence. Not that there could really have been
much debate
about the appointment by either party; competent landscape photographers
were not exactly plentiful in 1873, and, in any case, the devoted
Bayliss must have felt a strong moral obligation to carry on with
the work that his
chief had been forced to abandon.
It
would appear that it was sometime towards the end of
1873 that Bayliss took over the enterprise.
Probably he first carried on with the 10" x 12" series,
using the Victorian provincial towns as subject matter.
The five hundred odd negatives of this format have not
as yet all been identified, or even all printed, so it
is still not possible to state with any degree of accuracy
when and where one photographer left off and the other
commenced; it is hoped that the point will eventually
be determined by internal evidence. One point, however,
is fairly clear; whereas the 10" x 12" format
must have seemed fairly large to the stricken Merlin
(who had grown up in the carte-de-visite period), it
certainly did not appear so to the younger, more energetic
man. He began to talk in terms of 18" x 22"(13) , and his patron was quick to see the point; then, as
today,
it is not only the subject matter but
the impact that counts in a photograph.
Bayliss'
first coverage in the large format was most probably
a personal
picture for his patron. In the middle
of April, Holtermann noted in his diary: "Settled
with Jacobs about Post Office Hotel(14) for
£4,090," and,
of course, there had to be a photograph recording the
purchase - and Bayliss made sure it was a good one
by making two exposures, both of which turned out first-rate.
The
first major undertaking with the new equipment appears
to have been the coverage of Ballarat - some twenty
or thirty exposures of mines, buildings, streets, and,
of course, the great nine-exposure 3600 panorama. The
latter
can be accurately dated to March, 1874, through the
fortunate circumstance of the field of view which includes
the
campaign posters of two rival election candidates -
one Jones and one Sargeant, who fought it out on the
hustings
of that period.
About
this same time there must have been many talks between
the pair about the proposed
photography from
the tower. In the end several important decisions
were reached: firstly, that the proposed panoramas
should
be dramatically large, several times bigger than
any known photographs; secondly, that they should not
only
be giant panoramas - they should also be telephotographs
(item, a lens of about 100" focus - the largest
which could be operated in the limited space available
- to be ordered to be specially made in Germany).
Finally, the pictures were to be completed in time
for the
world's greatest Exhibition the Philadelphia Centennial,
which
was due to open in two years' time.
For
the year 1874 we have, at our side as we write, Holtermann's
private diary. Unfortunately there
are entries only for
about half the days of the year, but those
entries are both illuminating as to his manifold
activities and pungent
as regards his comments on his fellowmen.
It is hardly a document to be considered piecemeal,
and
our readers
will, therefore, forgive us if we reserve
the
story of his multigarious doings for a future
occasion.
Sad to
say, there is only one reference to photographic
matters. This is on January 2nd, where the
entry reads: "Hunt
and Bayliss getting things ready. Cases for
Exposition." He
does not state what "Exposition," but
it would be either Brussels Exposition of Industrial
Art or the
1874 Exhibition in Prince Alfred Park (Sydney).
The
outstanding event of the year was the completion
of the tower. We read with interest the
entry for August 29th: "Put on the top of the
tower the last stone boring [turning] ...
Slept in new house for protection
to same without blankets," and that
for September 11th: ". . . Building
tower roof to little gutter-not deep enough," and
finally on November 9th (Lord Mayor's Day-at
that time a holiday): "Regatta
watched from top of house for some [time]."
There
was another little assignment for Bayliss
about this period. Space had been provided
in the tower
for a circular window which would provide
the finishing touch to the fine structure-nothing
less than a handsome
window
in stained - glass that would show to
every visitor the likeness of the master of
the house and of the
great
nugget which he had found. He would get
his photographer to make up a composite
picture
of the desired arrangement,
which would serve as a guide(15) for
the stained-glass artist.
A photograph of the stained-glass
window originally in Holtermann's Tower and now in
the archives of the S.C.E.G.S. See also cover illustration
and reference in text.
(Photograph by J. C. Young)
The
following year, 1875, was destined to be the memorable
one
in the annals
of photography,
for
it was in that
self-same year that there were
successfully coated, exposed and processed, "in
far-off Australia," the
largest photographs ever made in
the world by the wet-plate process.
The
work appears to have been commenced
in the winter, so that advantage
could be taken of the good
visibility
ever associated with Sydney's westerlies.
The first task was to board-in the
tower in order to make a
light-tight room - veritably a ten-foot-cube
camera atop an eighty-foot
tripod. The world's largest camera
for the world's largest
photographs!(16)
Opportunity
was also taken to make a continuous 360° panorama
33 feet
long
with the 18" x 22" camera
- this proved to be equally successful. "It
included the whole of the city
of Sydney and suburbs,
the harbour
and surroundings up to a distance
of four miles and more accurately
than can be seen
with the
naked eye . . .
signboards three miles away on
the sides of houses can be read
with
ease on the prints
where it is
quite impossible
to see even the house when one
is standing on the top of the tower."
About
the time the negatives were completed
there was a sad interruption.
At the
end of August, the
body
of Commander Goodenough was brought
back to Sydney on its
last journey; he had died at
sea from wounds received at the hands
of the
natives on the
island of Santa
Cruz.
Somewhat
disrespectfully, the coffin appears to have been brought
across
the harbour to
Milson's
Point
by steam horse ferry. The occasion
was deemed by Holtermann
worthy of photographic record
- as, indeed, it was - and the resultant
18" x 22" negative
has come down to us in perfect
condition,
and, incidentally, is perhaps
Australia's earliest "news
feature" photograph
of any importance.
The
year, too, ended on a note that must
have saddened Holtermannit
was
the closing
down
of the "Star of
Hope" on December 28th.
