Ben Apfelbaum

NEW YEAR’S EVE 2017 SYDNEY

Firstly, a belated Happy New Year  to my colleagues and readers of this esteemed journal. 

Over the years one has seen the Foti family have had the budget for the New Year’s display reduced. Fireworks used to explode off high rise CBD towers including Centrepoint and from North Sydney. My recollection was that the fireworks also lasted longer.

However what the Fotis lack in budget, the Foti family compensated in ingenuity, coming up with new shapes, patterns, to vividly paint the night sky.For the first time, the Bridge’s arch was lit whilst the fireworks exploded and remained lit  well after the show had concluded perhaps as a form of solace for the drivers’ trapped in gridlock traffic, sometimes taking many hours to reach home.

Also for the first time, the fireworks were choreographed to the great musical giants that 2016 claimed – David Bowie and Prince. As the pyro technic show was planned in September, it could not include the music of the great Leonard Cohen and the pop wizadry of George Michael.

Many cynics say that it is a waste of money but 1.5 million spectators around the harbour and millions of more television viewers overseas  and a cost benefit analysis states that this is the best fireworks display in the world, injects more into the local economy than the fireworks expend.

In  addition, like the gay Mardi Gras, people come from all over the world to see it and people even camp at choice locations days before the midnight climax.

All images 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.