Modern Life and Times
Bayliss’s photographs of modern life were inextricably bound up with a belief in progress. This is manifest in numerous ways, including his documentation of a well-organised modern hospital and the fantastical images of Lawrence Hargrave’s pioneering experiments with flight. In 1894, Hargrave linked together four of his box kites, as depicted by Bayliss, and successfully flew a short distance, thus demonstrating that building a safe and stable flying machine was possible.
These photographs of modern citizens at work and at leisure were among the last taken by Bayliss before his sudden death at the age of 47.
Modern Life and Times
Interior of Garden Palace, Sydney International
Exhibition Building, 1879
albumen print; 21.0 x 27.0 cm
In an album of photographs of the Sydney
Exhibition Building and other Sydney buildings
nla.pic-an10697078-19
Cricket match between England and Australia,
Sydney, New South Wales, 3 February 1892
albumen print; 15.1 x 20.5 cm
From the album ‘New South Wales Photographs,
1880–1897’ nla.pic-vn4278584
Five unidentified surveyors at camp site,
New South Wales 1880s
albumen print; 14.8 x 19.3 cm
From the album ‘New South Wales Photographs,
1880–1897’ nla.pic-an24616998
Hawkesbury Bridge c. 1887
albumen print
15.3 x 19.8 cm
nla.pic-vn4278045
