Ben Apfelbaum

HEAD ON FESTIVAL GOES AHEAD – ONLINE

Arts exhibitions, film and theatrical events and musical shows have been cancelled up to July 2020. The Government is suggesting that some of its lockdown  awards will apply for a further six months from now. However one of our biggest cultural events will still take place from May 2 to May 17.

Talks will take place and entrants do not have to live in Sydney . Why? The Head On photo festival will go online and thereby reach an audience far in excess of the fixed exhibitions at various venues.

Festival Director Moshe Rosenzweig  said, “cancelling was never an option….We are going to have a whole heap of people at home, who…are going to be interested in doing things that have value and escape the panic and  scary news. The other thing that is a plus is that now we are going to have access to a whole lot of people living outside Sydney, in the bush and maybe even outside Australia.”

At this stage the traditional venues of the Paddington Town Hall, Paddington Reservoir, Juniper Hall and Bondi Beach Pavilion will display printed photos. In addition a few galleries will also exhibit printed versions of the photos which have been allocated to them.

One hopes that the fact that you can access the photo entries at home means that the numbers at the traditional venue and galleries will be vastly reduced to ensure social isolation protocols can be enforced,

So for those who enjoy living in a virtual world, in the comfort of their own home, get your fingers primed to go online live to view the Head On Photo festival.

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.