September 1, 2012
The picture below is from Andrew Chapman's interesting Shearers project.
Andrew Chapman, Marios chair - Marios Palace Hotel, Broken Hill, 1993, gelatin silver print
He has also done a book on The Australian woolshed Though Australia's wool industry has contracted since its 1970s heyday, when the nation boasted 180 million sheep, the architectural legacy of those days remains across the country in a genre all its own.
Chapman has been photographing sheds for many years and he says:.
There's a really big difference between going into a shed that's working - which usually happens for about four or five weeks of the year - everybody's doing something, nobody's got time to talk, it's just go, go, go. 'Those other times when you walk into sheds that are idle: you get the occasional barn owl, they are haunted and deathly quiet, a bit of wind rattling the tin or a shaft of light coming through, lighting up an old pile of wool that's been left on the floor … They are visual voyages of discovery.
The book has 400 photos of these unique buildings from across the country:
Andrew Chapman, Old Kunumbra Shearing Shed, gelatin silver print
This shed dates from 1871 when the property was first settled. The shed was last worked in 1957.
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