Ben Apfelbaum

HOMEGROUND FESTIVAL PROVES DEADLY

Photography by Ben Apfelbaum.

There was much distress when the Corroboree Festival was discontinued due to a lack of funding. However, in the last couple of years it has been resurrected, albeit in a modified form, as the Homeground Festival.

Like its previous iteration it is still held at the Sydney Opera House.

As well as some participation of Canada’s First Nations, the highlight was the fierce competition in the traditional indigenous dance competition.

Eighteen teams from diverse regions as far away as the Torres Strait Islands displayed their skills in a dazzling array of costume and style.

Some competitors have never been to a big city, let alone flown on an airplane.

Dance Rites overall winner was Kulgoodah who received  a giant cheque in the sum of $20,000.

The Homeground Festival was held between the 25th and 26th November at the Forecourt of the Sydney Opera House.

 

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.