Memory of the World
Giant Glass Plate Negatives of Sydney Harbour
Three giant glass plate negatives measuring 135 x 094 metres 53 x 37 are understood to be the worlds largest 19th century wetprocess negatives These images record the view of Sydney Harbour in 1875 documenting the future site of the world heritagelisted Sydney Opera House Bernhardt Holtermann was determined to promote his adopted home to the world through photography With Charles Bayliss they designed a 23 metre 87 foot high purposebuilt tower turning the 3 metresquare 10 foot room at the top into a giant camera There they created a series of colossal wetprocess negatives capturing one of the worlds greatest harbours in photographs bigger than had been ever thought possible and toured them across the globe
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