Ben Apfelbaum

ARTISTS OF THE GREAT WAR @ THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Artists of the Great War is a collaboration between the National Gallery of Australia, and the Australian National University (NGA). It has been curated by David Hansen with contributions from students of the Centre of Art History and Theory.

The display features loans from the Australian War Memorial and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, alongside works from the NGA collection.The exhibition depicts artists’ perception of the Great War through their sketches, finished paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints, posters, books, magazines, and commemorative medal.

The Great War remains Australia’s conflict in terms of casualties – of the 416,809 men who enlisted over 60,000 were killed and a 156,000 were injured.

With unprecedented numbers of young soldiers injured, the role of the Army medical corps and the Australian Army Nursing Service was crucial. Of the artists represented in this exhibition, Rupert Bunny, George Coates, Tom Roberts and Arthur Stretton served as hospital orderlies. John Longstaff painted a posthumous portrait of his son Jack, killed in action.

The exhibition runs until June 17 at the National Gallery Of Australia.

Featured pic – George Lambert – Balcony of Troopers Ward 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.