Wolfgang Sievers, an icon of modernist photography, brought a unique vision to Australian industry and architecture, creating powerful images that elevated these subjects to the status of fine art.
Through Sievers’ lens, heavy machinery and corporate architecture gained a new sense of dignity and grandeur. Born in Germany in 1913, Sievers’ upbringing laid the foundation for his distinct visual language. His father, an art historian, and his mother, a talented painter, immersed him in the art world from an early age, exposing him to theatre, music, and fine art. This not only instilled in him a strong sense of composition but also an appreciation for art as a vehicle for social commentary. At the age of 12, Sievers received his first camera from his parents, a pivotal gift that would shape his career.
As a young man, Sievers was influenced by the Bauhaus movement. He studied at the Contempora School for Applied Arts in Berlin under the Bauhaus ethos; that art, design, and industry should exist in harmony, supporting a vision of modernity that was accessible and functional. In 1938, as the Nazi influence grew in Germany, Sievers emigrated to Australia, bringing with him not only an advanced skillset but also a vision to use photography as a tool for showcasing the beauty of industry.
Upon arriving in Australia, he established a career with commercial clients, particularly excelling in industrial photography for companies like Vickers Ruwolt. Sievers didn’t just document the machinery, he created images that gave these massive constructs a sense of order, strength, and beauty. His photographs became iconic, portraying industrial machinery as monumental achievements in engineering.
One of Sievers’ most famous works, Gears for Mining Industry 1967, exemplifies his ability to turn mechanical components into powerful, almost mythic symbols. In this photograph, Sievers carefully staged a gigantic gear, arranging the lighting to empasise its grand scale. He positioned an engineer scaling the gear’s teeth, a lone figure seemingly ascending a mountain of metal. This image was fully orchestrated, with the gear hoisted by a crane, the engineer added to provide scale, and shadows cast with Sievers’ own lights to isolate the gear against a darkened background.
While Sievers’ photographs celebrated the marvels of machinery, he never lost sight of the workers who operated them. In his images, Sievers often juxtaposed workers with machinery, capturing moments where human skill complemented industrial precision. It is a theme prominent in works like Ropemaking, Miller Rope, Melbourne 1962, where he focused on the worker’s hands as they guide the thick, twisting ropes into form.
Parallel to his industrial work, Sievers documented modern Australian architecture, collaborating with some of the country’s most prominent architects of the time. His photographs feature works by Frederick Romberg, Robin Boyd, Harry Seidler, and David McGlashan, showcasing designs characterised by sleek lines and minimalist forms. His photographs of the Heide House designed by McGlashan, capture the geometric purity and open-space philosophy of modernist architecture. These works not only celebrated architecture’s functional beauty, but also connected Sievers with his Bauhaus ethos where form followed function and spaces were crafted to embody ideals of progress and innovation. His images reveal elements with a clarity that often feels timeless, framing buildings in a way that suggests they could exist in any modernist metropolis, be it Berlin or Melbourne.
Wolfgang Sievers was awarded an Order of Australia (AO) in 2002 for ‘service to the arts as a photographer, and for recording Australian cultural life and heritage through the visual documentation of Australian industry and architecture of the twentieth century’. Sievers’ legacy endures as a testament to his belief that the worlds of art, architecture, and industry are not separate, but interconnected in the continuous evolution of modern life.
We are pleased to present An Important Collection of Wolfgang Sievers Photographs and Studio Objects in November.
By Hannah Ryan, Prints & Multiples Specialist
Top Image: Wolfgang Sievers (1913-2007) The Reed’s “Heide”, Architect: David McGlashan 1968. $400 – 600
November 2024