Ben Apfelbaum

BLEU BLANC ET ROUGE FESTIVAL @ CIRCULAR QUAY

Images by Ben Apfelbaum.

Due to crippling rises in public liability insurance and the high cost of venue hire many festivals in the Sydney  cultural calendar have either been postponed or have disappeared.

However, a bright and energetic new festival has emerged at Circular Quay. Now in its second year the Bleu Blance Et Rouge ( Blue, White and Red) festival initially celebrated under the colours of the national flag  all things French.  Spreading its cuisine further, its former African French speaking colonies had stalls as well as some from the French speaking part of Canada, and the Walloom part of Belgium.

In the evenings there  were cabaret and can can shows which complemented the themes of the stall holders.

To accommodate a broader pan European approach the Rouge is dropped so that Greek culture and cuisine is also included. Given the huge crowds that attended it is highly likely that it will be held again next year, as it was this year, starting on Bastille Day.

http://bbrfestival.com.au/

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.