Ben Apfelbaum

‘SWEET COUNTRY’ : ART EXHIBITION @ DARLING QUARTER

SWEET COUNTRY, directed by Warwick Thornton,  is a Western set in 1929 when pastoralists and local indigenous people clashed  over frontier lands in central Australia.

This photo exhibition adjacent to the Monkey Baa Theatre at darling Harbour is a partnership between BUNYA Productions and Photoplay supported by the Screen Australia Indigenous Department.

Four still photographers- Mark Rogers, Michael Corridore, Tamara Dean and Warwick Baker – travelled to Alice Springs to take stills of SWEET COUNTRY scenes whilst the movie was being shot.

The exhibition features cast members from  SWEET COUNTRY at unguarded moments and the stills also capture the gorgeous desert country around Alice Springs where the film was shot.

As it is in the open air these evocative images can be accessed at any time from early in the morning till late in the evening.

The exhibition is on display between Monday 29 January – Sunday 25 February (open 24 hours, 7 days) at 1-25 Harbour Street, Darling Quarter. 

Pics by Ben .Apfelbaum taken of the stills snapped by the above named photographers.

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.