The sixties through the eyes of John Mulligan
J. A. (John Aloysius) Mulligan (1927-1996),
Bifocal glasses on a chicken at the Royal Agricultural Show, New South Wales, 6 September, 1962, nla.pic-an24539208
If you recall the 1960s you will find much of interest in the work of Australian press photographer John Mulligan (1927-1996), which has recently been digitised for the Web by the National Library of Australia. Over 1800 of Mulligan’s images are now online in the Library’s Catalogue.
The sixties saw the arrival of new technology and Mulligan was there to capture the wonders of the three-minute car wash, shopping trolleys when they were a cause for marvel, the rise and rise of Laminex, fire sprinklers newly installed at the NSW Fire Brigade headquarters, the gleaming interior of the new Cahill Expressway tunnel, and the even more gleaming interior of the loo of the new TAA Lockheed Elektra Mark II (decorously subject-catalogued as ‘Aircraft cabin’). He documented the last years of the pre-computer age in Australia: from schoolgirls being taught to use manual typewriters and adding machines, to the bright new Control Room at Mascot airport in 1962, with its pristine card files and a display board regularly updated by a young woman on a ladder.