Henry Beaufoy Merlin impersonator (Peter Solness) and assistant, Charles Bayliss (Jane Collins) participated in the 2023 Henry Lawson Heritage Festival within their “Projection Walking Tour” featuring Holtermann photos taken in Gulgong. This one-off night event was a great success and featured photographs taken during the Goldrush at Gulgong projected onto the modern streetscape.
In conjunction with this event the Holtermann Museum is hosting an exhibition of Peter’s projection photographs from Hill End. To create these works Peter set out night after night with a projector powered by a car battery, camera, tripod and torch, projecting images from the collection onto a range of sites in the town. Some of the projections relate directly to the locations themselves whilst others are chosen for their artistic value.
It was Henry Beaufoy Merlin who took most of the earlier landscape views in the Holtermann Collection and who, over an incredible ten years between 1863 and 1873, transformed himself from a theatrical showman into a landscape photographer, acknowledged by his contemporaries as one of the most important in Australia.
The exhibition of Holtermann Projection series at Hill End runs from 10th June 2023 to 14th January 2024 in the Museum theatrette.
The museum is open daily from 10am until 3pm.
