Ben Apfelbaum

CHINESE NEW YEAR 2018

Due to the construction works for the light rail in George Street, the Chinese and other Asian communities have been unable to hold their dazzling lantern parade complete with lion dancing and communal dance troupes.

So what to do?! In a Vivid like display the twelve illuminated Chinese signs of the Zodiac  which would normally be atop floats, were now displayed around Circular Quay.

As this is the Year Of The Dog, this Zodiac sign representation took pride of place by the Sydney Opera House.

Lion dancing took place in the Haymarket area and Tumbalong Park in Darling Harbour was filled with market stalls, anima figures which lit up at night, and live performances of ethnic dancing.

Nearby, at Darling Harbour, the traditional dragon boat races were fiercely contested. Winners of these races, which are also contested at venues around Australia, go on to compete at the world dragon boat races competition held in Szeged, Hungary. At times, there seemed to be more race participants than the many spectators.

The Chinese and other communal dance groups performed on a beautifully lit stage at First Fleet Park, Circular Quay.

This year, the Chinese New Year fell on Friday 16 February.

Although this year’s Festival was highly successful, one hopes that the traditional lantern parade will return in the near future.

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum (c).

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.