Stories from the Studio: Bud Townsing
A magical Stories from the Studio tonight following a visit with Bud Towsing in the Southern Highlands to discover more about stereoscopic images and magic lanterns.
Bud has curated a glorious exhibition of stereoscopes and historical photographs currently on display at the Berrima Museum. The interactive exhibition includes various vintage and modern apparatuses that turn 2D photographic images into a 3D experience. Including many early images of the Southern Highlands captured by William Augustus Nicholas in the late 1800s.
A highlight of the exhibition is the chance to view the French Diableries slides and take a satiric, circa 1870, visit to Hell!
The STA team can enthusiastically recommend a visit to the Museum to enjoy the magic of stereoscopic images as well as the rich permanent collection displays.
This isn’t the first exhibition at the Berrima Museum that Bud has curated. In 2021 he curated the beautiful Gardens and Landscapes of the Southern Highlands, Then & Now exhibition at the museum, developed in conjunction with the Southern Highlands Branch of the Australian Garden History Society. Bud is the editor of the Society’s Inflorescence publication and as an accomplished historian regularly contributes his research.
Bud is a leading member of the Berrima and District Historical Society. He and his wife Maureen lived in Bundanoon for many years and prepared several exhibitions for display at Bundanoon History Group’s Old Goods Shed. The couple moved to Bowral in 2015, undertaking several more historical research projects before Maureen passed away in May 2020.
Bud’s collection of magic lantern slides and projectors will be used by STA to develop a live magic lantern experience in the future. Watch this space for details about this exciting project as they happen including a chance to be in the audience for a show.
AMAZING 3D STEREO PHOTOGRAPHY an exhibition curated by Bud Townsing at Berrima Museum
Features images by William Augustus Nicholas, a NSW photographer who was capturing stereo images as early as 1867. William came to Bundanoon in 1872 and began taken of stereo photography in the Southern Highlands.
In this presentation we show some of the stereoviews taken by William Augustus Nicholas. You can view them using a traditional stereoscope, and we also present them in Anaglyph form which you can view through the 3D red/cyan glasses on the big screen.
Sir Brian May (best known as a member of the legendary rock band Queen) has a long fascination with stereo photography and the book Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell by Brian May, Denis Pellerin, and Paula Fleming which is one and several books in the exhibtion provides an extensive collection and background on these fascinating artworks.
Using Brian’s “Owl” stereoviewers you can take a brief tour of our Universe or you can look at some. All in fantastic antique 3D.
Berrima District Museum is operated by the Berrima District Historical & Family History Society
Located at 1a Market Place & Bryan Street, Berrima
This destination museum is open 10am – 3pm Friday to Sunday all year round (Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Day and Good Friday)
The visit will set you back a modest $10 each Adult – free for accompanied children. Seniors/Concession is just $8
Group visits are welcome by appointment anytime. You can contact the museum on 02 4877 1130 or [email protected].
The Society’s website is full of helpful information before or after the visit IRL
Follow the museum on Facebook @Berrima Museum
Bud and his late wife Maureen have published multiple fine-print quality ‘on-demand’ large size (27x32cm) books, each being research studies lavishly illustrated with photographs. Each of the publications is held in the Berrima Archives. Titles include:
- The Rundle Collection, 2014. A collection of photos of the Rundle family, Bundanoon.
- Travelling Photographers, 2015. An Album of Early Bundanoon and NSW Photographs. Sarah Nicholas, William Augustus Nicholas, George Henry Nicholas, Clara Louise Nicholas.
- Martin Moore – Exeter’s Imaginative Photographer, 2015. An Album of his photographs taken around Exeter and Bundanoon.
- A brief history of Church and Edward Streets Bowral, 2016
- A brief history of St Jude Street, and part of Bowral Street, Bowral, 2017
- A brief history of “Whitton’s Farm” Windsor and the Eccleston Family of Lower Minto, 2019. Edward Whitton and Ann Slater of Windsor, William Whitton and Mary Ann Whitton of Windsor, Richard Barnes of Windsor and Minto etc.
- A brief history of Alf Stephens & Sons: Builders and Contractors, and Builders’ Supply Merchants, 2020
- Garden Cuttings Revisited: A Brief History of Yarrabin and the Gardening World of Tim and Keva North by Keva North and Bud Townsing 2021
- The Bundanoon Shops Project 2010 by Maureen Towning. Published 2024 by Bud Townsing.
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