Looking at Life Through A Lens

Henri Cartier-Bresson a French 20th Century photojournalist commented that "photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again."

Many 19th Century photo-historians also captured their passion for photography with a myriad of images that today provide us with an invaluable insight into significant moments of the past that have now vanished.

The Garden Palace and Sydney International Exhibition photographs featured in this blog are held in the State Library's Pictures Collection. They are an important record and story of a significant period in Sydney's history and of the great loss of an exceptionally grand architectural structure that dominated Sydney's harbour landscape from 1879 -1882. The Collection holds many photographs of the interior and exterior construction of the Palace, the varying exhibits at the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879 and the final images of the ruins of the Palace after its destruction by fire in 1882.

The Garden Palace was constructed by the architect James Barnet in what is now Sydney's Royal Botanical Gardens. Modelled on London's Crystal Palace it was designed and built in 1879 to house the Sydney International Exhibition of the same year. The exhibition attracted representation by 18 other countries with displays of world products and advanced manfacturing and industrial technology. There was also a South Pacific anthropology collection, horticultural exhibits, art galleries and daily musical concerts.

The selection of photographs featured in the slideshow below can be accessed in the pictures collection of the State Library of NSW.