Old Fremantle: Photographs 1850–1950

by John Dowson

UWA Press

$75hb, 223pp

Photography has been around for more than 150 years, with many developments, from daguerreotypes, which had a brief life in Australia, to the latest in digital technology. Old Fremantle: Photographs 1850–1950 contains an impressive collection of 240 photographs taken in Fremantle from 1850 to 1950. The detail in each photograph is of such luminosity that one could pore over the book for hours, exploring a world that no longer exists. The author lists and describes the photographers of Fremantle, and then breaks the book into a number of categories: Port, City, Home, People and Pleasure, Trains and Trams, Business and War. Phillip Adams writes briefly about the lure of the monochrome, and George Seddon places Fremantle in its context. This book offers a fascinating record of Fremantle’s past. (AMT)

A New City: Photographs of Melbourne’s land boom

edited by Ian Morrison

Miegunyah Press

$39.95hb, 117pp

Charles Bristow Walker was an obscure Melbourne photographer who worked for just over a decade as a photographer and left behind few clues about his life. He took many photo-graphs of Melbourne during the land boom, of which 140 are reproduced in this book, along with commentaries from various historians, librarians, and archivists. The photographs show a proud and energetic city developing from the wealth of the gold rush. There are images of recognisable Melbourne landmarks, such as the Melbourne Town Hall, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Caulfield Racecourse, and the State Library. Walker’s photographs give a fascinating insight into the changing Melbourne of the 1880s and 1890s. A tram transports passengers to the ‘Cyclorama of Old Melbourne’, and we see St Patrick’s Cathedral under construction. (AMT)

The Astor

edited by Jan Roberts

Ruskin Rowe Press

$69.95pb, 127pp

On 25 October 1923 the famous Astor in Macquarie Street, Sydney, was opened. One of Australia’s grandest residential buildings, it has been home to many people such as artist Portia Geach, silent movie star Vera James, gynaecologist Derek Llewellyn-Jones and satirist Barry Humphreys. The Astor recently celebrated its eightieth birthday. This book draws on material from The Astor’s archives. Contributors include Clive Lucas, Donald Ellsmore, Scott Robertson, Robert Kroening, and Maisy Stapleton. The book includes a day in the life of the caretaker in 1928, portraits of some of its notable and eccentric residents, letters from the archives, and an inside view of The Astor today. (AMT)

Lionel Lindsay in Spain: An Antipodean abroad

by Colin Holden

Miegunyah Press

$49.95hb, 174pp

After spending six months in Spain during 1902, Lionel Lindsay developed a lifelong passion for the country. He went on to produce more than 100 works of art based on Spanish subjects. Lionel Lindsay in Spain, drawn from diaries, letters, and other materials, is a beautifully produced book and contains more than eighty illustrations. The first part explores Lindsay’s four visits to Spain and its influence on his art. The second looks at Lindsay’s detailed record of the processes he used in his printmaking. Nearly a third of the book contains a gallery of Lindsay’s prints, and a commentary on each one. There is also a detailed Appendix of the Spanish Intaglio Print Images Revised Catalogue. (AMT)

William Dobell: Portraits in context

by Jane Hylton

Wakefield Press

$39.95pb, 64pp

William Dobell won the Archibald Prize three times, most famously in 1944 for his controversial Portrait of an artist (Joshua Smith), which challenged the favoured style of portraiture. Focusing on the controversial painting and Dobell’s earlier works, this book is the third in a series featuring artists represented in the collection of Carrick Hill. The book, divided into four parts, opens with the story behind Portrait of an artist, discusses a selection of Dobell’s early works, looks at the recovery of damaged paintings after the 1958 fire at Carrick Hill, and includes a brief biography of Dobell. It also features twenty-nine plates, including two studies and a sketch for Portrait of an artist. (AMT)

Human Scale in Architecture: George Molnar’s Sydney

by Jo Holder, Robert Freestone and Joan Kerr

Craftsman House

$66hb, 152pp

George Molnar was a trained architect and one of Australia’s greatest cartoonists. In Human Scale in Architecture, the authors show Molnar’s influence on Sydney’s architecture through his satirical cartoons. Molnar, who never learnt to drive, was a great observer of the development of his city. The book opens with a brief biography of its subject and is then divided into sections that examine Molnar’s work from the 1950s through to the 1980s, interspersed with essays by the three authors. It also includes Molnar’s amusing watercolours, book covers, extracts of writings that shaped Sydney, a detailed bibliography of Molnar’s work and writing, and a list of his exhibitions and awards. (AMT)

20th Century Ceramics

by Edmund de Waal

Thames & Hudson

$30hb, 224pp

The history of twentieth-century ceramics is complex, varied, and rich. The rise of the studio or artist potter, often at the conceptual vanguard of ceramics, emerges from developments in progressive and artistically inclined commercial potteries in France and Britain during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book’s chronologically arranged chapters chart some of the key points, movements, and figures of twentieth-century ceramics. The focus is on Europe and North America, with a few references to Asia, mostly Japan. Given the importance of ceramics in Australian decorative arts and sculpture, it is disappointing that there is scant reference to Australian ceramics. Only one Australian potter’s work is illustrated. Work by indigenous potters in Africa, both Americas and Australia is ignored completely. Irritatingly, the captions do not include the nationality of the maker of the illustrated works, or where the works were made. At this price, 20th Century Ceramics is good value as an introduction to some aspects of the subject. (CM)