Ben Apfelbaum

POLISH CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL @ TUMBALONG PARK

Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour, as well as its surrounds, has been refurbished. Gone is the moat and nearby fountains. However, it now appears to have a slightly concave shape which means it is likely to have better drainage than previously. It has a brand new and larger stage which now faces north rather than west.

One of the first uses of this revamped park is the staging of the Polish Christmas Festival. The area was a sea of red and white with visitors either carrying the flag or dressed in the national colours. There were posters celebrating their national hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko after whom our highest peak was named by its first conqueror Count Strezlecki. Next year there will be commemorations held by the Polish community acknowledging the year of this death, two hundred years ago.

There was folk dancing and folk musicians, the later tapping a deep well of nostalgia with many in the crowd singing happily along.

Tumbalong Park was ringed with  food, gift and travel stalls who all seemed to be doing a brisk trade on a glorious sunny afternoon.

Images copyright Ben Apfelbaum.

 

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.