AIR: Wolfgang Sievers

Wolfgang Sievers
Australia 1913–2007
Escalator site at Parliament Station, Melbourne 1977, printed 1994
Type C photograph on paper
50.7 x 40.5cm
Purchased 1994

Photographer Wolfgang Sievers celebrates humanity’s capacity to transform the Earth via industry. With its volcanic glow and dramatic vantage point, his construction-site view Escalator site at Parliament Station, Melbourne 1977 locates the viewer in a subterranean landscape carved from the bedrock of the city, deep beneath the promise of a clear blue sky.

Wolfgang Sievers / Australia VIC 1913–2007 / Escalator site at Parliament Station, Melbourne 1977, printed 1994 / Type C photograph on paper / 50.7 x 40.5cm / Purchased 1994 / Collection: QAGOMA / © National Library of Australia

German-born and trained, Sievers made Australia his home in 1938 and built a career creating images he felt would enhance this country’s standing as an industrial nation. Sievers staged his shoots using cinematic tools, such as theatrical lighting and arranged figures, to create a sense of clarity and power.

In the 1970s, as workers were increasingly replaced by automation, the human dimension in Sievers’s work became subsumed by industry. Towards the end of his life, the photographer reflected: ‘In creating beautiful images, I have glamorised industries which have often been heedless of their sacred trust to use resources wisely and take care of in the interest of future generations’.