October 2nd, 2011
For some time now one of my fondest places to see my pictures published has been the “Heart of the Nation” weekly feature in the “The Weekend Australian Magazine” – a rare image driven feature that runs ‘out of the ordinary’ photos from around Australia and matches the images with great in depth ‘words’.
Now it’s even better … the mag has had a recent major revamp … and “Heart of the Nation” has moved from a single page at the back of the book to what is often a double page spread near the front under the additional title ‘ForeWord – People & Observations”.
The new format looks sensational … and the images leap off the pages at you at about (in my old measurements) 14 inches by 10 and half inches … a size that is pretty rare in newspaper colour mags.
This weekend the mag featured an image I made at the recent Mareeba Rodeo of a chuckling horse dispatching his rider to his destiny and a face full of dirt. Great words, as usual, from journalist Ross Bilton and the two page spread as run and Ross’s words are shown below.
“Heart of the Nation” is a great window for Australia’s fantastic depth of photographic talent … and picture editor Christine Westwood, feature journalist Ross Bilton and the new magazine editor Christine Middap deserve congratulations … and the gratitude of photographers.
Pic © Brian Cassey 2011
Walkley Award …
Last week I was enjoying a nice evening after a hard day flying across the Torres Strait to photograph old George Mye on Darnley Island, when I started to receive messages from friends and colleagues in Sydney that my image of Cairns burns survivor Carol Mayer had been selected as the Winner of the “2011 Nikon Walkey Best Portrait Award”. The announcement was made that evening at the Australian Centre for Photography in Paddington.
That’s a great way to start an evening. Fantastic news …
This Thursday I have to take the little flight from Cairns to Melbourne for the presentation dinner hosted by the lovely people at Nikon and the Walkley Foundation.
I’ve since visited the subject of the image … the brave and lovely Carol … and showed her the image, the judges comments and the hundreds of comments I have received on various social media.
The image is shown below with the comments of the judges … and clicking on the pic will also take you to the My Nikon Life site where you can view all the photographic works of the 2011 Nikon Walkley winners and finalists.
Image © Brian Cassey 2011