Everyday, Australia and the World …
Delighted to be invited to be part of the ‘Everyday’ phenomenon currently running riot on Instagram.
The story of ‘Everyday’ Instagram feeds began in 2012 when photographer Peter DiCampo and writer Austin Merrill founded @everydayafrica to showcase the best documentary images of the African Continent. It now has a following in excess of 113,000. Since then, many other accounts have been born including @everydayasia which has amassed more than 50,000 followers and, most recently, @everydayusa which grew to a similar number in just a matter of months.
This week I received an invitation to be part of the new ‘Everyday Australia’ @everydayaustralia feed curated by current Nikon Walkley Press Photographer of the Year and all round consummate photojournalist and good guy Andrew Quilty. I didn’t have to think twice!
Andrew’s creation of @everydayaustralia makes it the sixth continent to be covered by the official ‘Everyday’ network. DiCampo and Merrill have both been very enthusiastic about the launch of @everydayaustralia, as has Teru Kuwayama – Facebook’s photo community manager – who made the account name available.
Since late 2014 all the various ‘Everyday’ feeds have been loosely connected under a Global umbrella feed “Everyday Everywhere” @everydayeverywhere which acts as a World wide “Best Of” window. The @everydayeverywhere feed on Instagram is controlled by a central curator who searches for recent hash tagged #everydayeverywhere images from the various ‘Everyday’ feeds and reposts at least one every day.
At the moment the contributing photographers to @everydayaustralia are Oculi collective members Andrew, Dean Sewell and Raphaela Rosella, WA based Michael Wilson … and myself. STOP PRESS – two more contributors have just been announced – Darwin’s Glenn Campbell (‘fotostrada’ collective) and Newcastle based Simone De Peak. Look out for their first @everdayaustralia posts.
Generally speaking, depicting daily life in Australia is ‘raison d’être’ for @everydayaustralia. Work is documentary in style but also not excluding portraits, news, events etc.
Please take the time to find some great mobile device photojournalism and daily life work on @everydayaustralia and @everydayeverywhere.
Below are my first couple of contributions to @everydayaustralia
… a click on them will take you to the feed to see the stories behind these two images and more from the other contributors. My personal Instagram feed is @brian_cassey.
Instagram iPhone images © Brian Cassey
Guns & Basketball … PNG & Cairns …
What a difference a week makes …
Chalk ‘n’ Cheese …
One week I’m in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, shooting (if you’ll excuse the term) images of camouflaged ‘Special Services’ police heavily armed with automatic weapons … and the next week I’m banging away at fourteen Commonwealth Games basketball games and the heir to the British throne. That’s why I’m thoroughly rapt with the job I’m privileged to do.
The story in PNG … with words by excellent ‘News’ journalist Charles Miranda … was based on gun running into Australia’s closest neighbour in the lead up to the visits of the World’s leaders (including Trump and Putin) to the APEC conference in Port Moresby in November. The story and pics got a great run in many News Ltd mastheads around the country including The Daily Telegraph, the Courier Mail, The West Australian … and more that I haven’t yet seen.
Back in Cairns in time for the XXI Commonwealth Games and the mens and womens Preliminary and Qualifying Finals basketball games with teams from India, Jamaica, Malaysia, Nigeria, New Zealand, Canada, England, Scotland … and Australia. (Sadly … the one game featuring England was disastrous if you hailed from across ‘The Ditch’ … they were duly thrashed by the Cannacks.)
Basketball, played in a perfectly lit but sterile indoor environment, is generally formulaic to shoot … but I did spend a few valuable minutes attempting something a little different during a couple of games … including an image I was a little pleased with (middle pic below) made during the Australian win over Nigeria. A slow shutter speed combined with a bit of vertical panning …
Prince Charles also made an appearance at the basketball and, as the ‘Pool’ photographer, my images of Charley were made available to all of Getty Images, the European Press Photo Agency (EPA) and my ’employer’ Australian Associated Press (AAP). Security, protocol, time restraints and bully tactics by broadcast media meant that good images were a challenge … but I did produce what I thought a nice comprehensive set.
So … a rewarding couple of weeks work … and variety is certainly the ‘spice of life’.
Below … one of my images of PNG ‘Special Services’ officers … and just one of the published ‘News’ feature pages (The Daily Telegraph) … pics from my Commonwealth Games basketball coverage (Australia V Nigeria and Scotland V Nigeria) and the visit of Prince Charles.
Images © Brian Cassey, News Ltd and AAP