Ben Apfelbaum

FRANCES KEEVIL GALLERY : THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

The delightful courtyard that adjoins the Frances Keevil Gallery will be bulldozed, together with the Gallery, to construct yet another block of units.

To ‘celebrate’ the impending demolition, Frances Keevil held a last hurrah Christmas Party as a form of wake and to thank artists, patrons and any of the Double Bay community who happened to drop in.

For those that came there was variations .of the cheese, crackers and wine variety, whilst being ‘serenaded’ by a  Zydeco band called ‘Squeezebox Boogaloo”. Their jaunty melodies seemed at odds with the air of melancholy that lay in the background.

I asked Frances Keevil what her plans were and she said  initially she was going to go on a long holiday. Thereafter she had no plans.

Like many businesses the Gallery will close down over the Christmas break and reopen in February, perhaps to have a ‘fire sale’ when her tenancy officially expires.

Frances Keevil has occupied the area for eleven years and the Gallery’s imminent closure will leave a large vacuum in Double Bay;’s cultural life.

For the time being, the Frances Keevil Gallery will maintain an online presence and any enquiries will be responded to in a prompt manner.

Featured image : Frances Keevil and her team. All images 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.