Lest We Forget."Sydney Sandstone" by Gary Deirmendjian (ed) and "John Horbury Hunt: Radical Architect 1838-1904" by Peter Reynolds, Lesley Muir and Joy Hughes. [review]

Abstract

The camera is the eye through which we are able to appreciate the great Sydney-based architect John Horbury Hunt (1838–1904), in whose memory both an exhibition (at the Museum of Sydney, August to December 2002) and this fine book pay homage.Though some of his buildings still stand, one, captured with fuzzy figures and unmade grounds, Booloominbah of the 1880s, now the administrative offices of the University of New England at Armidale, is like a becalmed architectural ghost glimpsed in the mist of time past. The camera has us looking at an architectural and social culture long gone. "Sydney Sandstone", 'the act of pure indulgence', is a fine collection of colour photographs by Gary Deirmendjian of buildings and details built of, or faced with, sandstone quarried from around Sydney. They are grouped in what might be called photographic essays: Places of Learning, Places of Worship, Public Buildings, Commerce and Trade, and, as a holdall for what is left, Out and About and Greater Sydney. Between these groups are short essays on different aspects of sandstone. Among the photographs there are a few reminders of changing times: among the places of learning are the old Darlinghurst gaol and the Marine Services building on Circular Quay. There is also hidden humour: a splendid axial view of the old sandstone GPO has the cenotaph in Martin Place in the foreground on which are the sacred words 'Lest We Forget'! Surprisingly, there is no section on Places of Residence.