Ben Apfelbaum

SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2018 : HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FREE EVENTS

It is a convention  of the Sydney Festival, in conjunction with the traditional paid for performances, to stage a number of free events.

Fortunately some of the big events such as Opera In The Park and Symphony Under The Stars have been with the Festival since its inception  and have remained. The latter, however, has a new home, no longer in the Domain but in The Crescent at Parramatta Park. One need not worry as Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with fireworks was still performed.

The Meriton Festival Village was present yet again in Hyde Park. However this year it had transformed into a Sideshow Alley.

Across the city, at Carriageworks in Newtown, German artist Katharina Grosse draped the entire front atrium in tie-dyed fabric in an immersive work entitled THE HORSE TROTTED ANOTHER COUPLE OF METRES. THEN IT STOPPED.

Aboriginal history was not forgotten with a performance entitled At Nawi Cove, Barangaroo. The performance commemorates the 4000 or so fish plundered by the early colonists thereby depriving the local Aboriginals of a vital part of their staple diet.

Let’s hope next year’s Festival, both paid for and free, is even bigger and better.

Pics by 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.