Wolfgang Sievers | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Wolfgang Sievers

Author National Library of Australia
Publication Date 01 Feb 2025

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Cover of NLA Publishing book 'Wolfgang Sievers' with a photo of tyre manufacturing machinery and blue along the top and bottom

Wolfgang Sievers (1913–2007) was one of Australia’s most significant architectural photographers. Born in Germany, and trained under the Bauhaus school, he fled the outbreak of the Second World War to make a new home in Australia. Sievers’ dramatic images of the post-war manufacturing boom celebrate the dignity of labour and the excitement of the modern machine age. He captured the height of Australian industry, recording places such as textile mills, match factories, oil refineries and treatment plants—many of these long since gone.

The Wolfgang Sievers Photographic Archive consists of around 13,700 prints and 51,700 negatives and transparencies, making it one of the largest photographic collections held in the Library.

The Artists of the National Library of Australia series showcases the Library’s extensive pictures collection.

Only a tiny fraction of Wolfgang Sievers’ vast output appears in this book but his great command of his medium and its language is clear throughout.

Helen Ennis

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Page published: 23 Jan 2025

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