Ben Apfelbaum

PHOTOS1440 EXHIBITION @ STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

10th Birthday in Lockdown Pic Steven Siewert
Black Lives Matter Protest, Sydney Town Hall Pic James Brickwood
Bondi Beach Covid 19 Testing Station. Pic Brook Mitchell.
Mogo, 31.12.2019 Pic James Brickwood.
Cheer Energy, Castle Hill Pic Wolter Peeters
Face In The Crowd Pic Louie Douvis
Hostages Escape The Lindt Cafe, Martin Place, 16_12.2014 Pic Andrew Meares
Middleweight Tayla Harris Hit By Renee Gartner Pic Wolter Peeters
Sydney’s Garrison Church Covid 19 Wedding Pic Janie Barrett
Tacloban Philippines Devastated By Typhoon Haiyan 22.11.2013 Pic Brendan Esposito
The Last Post, Anzac Day Dawn In 2020 Lockdown Pic Cole Bennetts

1440 is the number of seconds in a day and theoretically a good newspaper should be covering all of them. 

Nevertheless, some stories dominate the journalistic narrative and these themes are reflected in the photographs. 

2020 was dominated by bushfires and Covid. Naturally there is a dominance of horrific fires, heroic human battles to fight or survive these infernos and the devastating aftermath.

Covid dominates, with people lining up for tests wearing masks, the professionals fighting on the frontline, and their exhaustion. 

Perhaps it was a year of such seriousness that there was not room for humour or sporting photos as displayed in previous years. 

A surprise was the mini exhibition of previous photos from the past ten years bringing back important moments that you may have forgotten. 

The skill and artistry of the various photographers from the Sydney Morning Herald adds to the power and impact of this important annual exhibition.

Photos1440 exhibition is on display  at the State Library Of New South Wales until Sunday 25th April, 2021. Opening hours 9am to 5pm. Admission is free.

https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/photos1440

Featured image :Bombay 29.11.2019. Pic Alex Ellinghausen. All photographs by Ben Apfelbaum. The original photographs have each been  attributed and acknowledged..

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.