Charles Bayliss
(1850 - June 4, 1897) |
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Art Work
| Name: |
Charles Bayliss |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Hadleigh |
| Nationality: |
Australian |
| Birth: |
1850 |
| Death: |
June 4, 1897 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
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| Medium: |
Photography |
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Biography
| He arrived in Melbourne in 1854, where at the age of 16 he became assistant to Henry Beaufoy Merlin (1830-73), photographing views throughout the colony of Victoria, usually of buildings, often with the occupants posed before their facades. After five years they moved to Sydney, then to the goldfields of New South Wales, still concentrating on view pictures. Bayliss specialized in panoramas, and after Merlins death, the latters erstwhile patron, Bernard Holtermann (1838-85), commissioned him to make a photographic record of Australia. He began with an exhaustive study of Sydney, followed by extended travel in Victoria, working with large wet-plate negatives, and producing numerous large composite panoramas. Holtermanns home incorporated a tower 22 m high overlooking Sydney and its harbour, and Bayliss converted its upper level into a gigantic camera with which he made telephoto views, some on 900a”1600 mm glass plates, using a lens with 2500 mm focal length. In 1876 Holtermann exhibited many of the resulting panoramas in San Francisco and in Philadelphias Centennial International Exhibition; then throughout Germany, Switzerland and France, including the Exposition Universelle, Paris, of 1878; and he showed an enlarged compilation in Sydneys International Exhibition of 1879-80.From 1876 Bayliss established himself in his own premises in Sydney, where he photographed major public buildings during construction and various topical events. In 1886 the Royal Commission on Water Conservation appointed him official photographer, and on the ensuing travels he developed the documentary aspect of his work, photographing the River Darling and its surroundings, the river traffic, Aboriginal life, and rural industry. |
Samples of Work
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