It’s very short as I was too busy nattering to photographer mates and colleagues I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic, was hampered by a large glass of Shiraz in my hand whilst seated at the Nikon table and missed the start of the announcement. 🙂
However, below is a little vid of part of the announcement of my Nikon Portrait Prize win with the work “The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa” (my third win in this category in the last ten years) at the 2021 66th Walkley Awards presentation event at the International Convention Centre (ICC), Darling Harbour, Sydney last Friday eve. Click to play … and the sound is the best bit :-).
Grateful that the combined events seemed to attract a far bit of media attention … and struggled through radio interviews about the work and win with Kier Shorey at ABC Far North, Sarah Speller at Cairns FM 89.1, John MacKenzie at 4CA … (and another that won’t air till next month).
All touched on the work in the exhibition … a little on the Walkley … and the background stories to the images.
First up was Kia Shorey on drive time ABC … (not really at my best in a studio at 7am) … play here (below) if you have seven minutes of the will and patience 😉
The 4CA chat with veteran talk show host John MacKenzie was fairly short … but very useful and straight to the point as is John’s way.
Cairns FM 89.1 host Sarah Speller‘s little natter went a little longer at just on five minutes … and it can be played here …
However, by far the longest interview wasn’t for airing on the radio but was an integral part of the opening eve event of the ‘A Photographer’s Life – Part Two’ exhibition at the heritage listed Court House Gallery. Over a hundred folks witnessed ABC Radio’s talented senior presenter Fiona Sewell host an over forty minute Q&A ‘grilling’ (read interview) in the spacious Court Room of the gallery, where we talked in detail about eight projected images chosen from the thirty seven works that made up the exhibition. Here is all forty three minutes worth …
Thanks all in radio land for supplying the audio files … and Thank You for listening 🙂
Carol Mayer … heroic burns survivor, subject of my some of my most successful images and all round great lady … very sadly died in December 2020 after a fight with the Big C. Carol fought for her life and won after a house fire left her near death with burns to 85% of her body … but cruelly cancer eventually beat her.
Carol allowed me to make memorable images of the results of the fire on her body. They gained recognition in Australia and around the World. Carol’s rationale in allowing me to make them was that she hoped the work would empower other burns survivors. The pictures not only resonated with other burns survivors but also gave Carol a boost in self confidence helped her embark on many speaking events.
In the days following her death in December 2020 I was asked to share my thoughts about Carol and my images of her in an interview on ABC Radio Drive with presenter Adam Stephen.
The interview (below) runs for 8 minutes and 43 seconds.
Paul asked all the right questions … and the subjects discussed crossed photojournalism, portraiture, my work and my current exhibitions “Me Too … (etc)” … and “Paper Tigers” … the exhibition and book on the work of sixty Australian photojournalists that I co-curated with Head On’s Moshe Rosenzveig. “Paper Tigers” is on the walls of the new “Twenty Twenty Six Gallery” in Bondi until the 22nd of November.
The interview, which runs for a little over twenty one minutes, can be accessed here below.
A great couple of weeks of interviews regarding my work on various media … ABC, Radio 4CA, Channel Ten’s ‘The Project’ and a 20 minute online video interview at the State Library of Queensland.
The subject matter in most was the 2020 ‘Portrait of Humanity’ short list and award … and the projection in ‘space’ of two of my selected images. The portrait of Carol Mayer … ‘The Skin I’n In’ … was the centre of attention in many … whilst the other selected pic ‘Ramnami’ also received a mention in some.
Radio followed up … Sarah Speller interviewed myself ‘live’ on ABC Breakfast Far North (at not the best time very early on a Saturday morn) … and then followed that with another recorded segment on her ‘Sarah’s Spot’ on Cairns Radio 4CA a few days later. If you fancy … here (below) are Sarah’s two radio interviews (roughly near six minutes each).
ABC Breakfast Far North – Radio Interview ‘Portrait of Humanity’ – 5.50
Sarah’s Spot – 4CA – Radio Interview ‘Portrait of Humanity’ – 5:52
Then TV … a piece on the top rating Channel Ten news program ‘The Project’, thankfully centred on the my amazing subject burns survivor Carol Mayer. Lisa Wilkinson opened ‘The Project’ with the news of the selection of my pic of Carol in the 2020 ‘Portrait of Humanity’ … and I later had a cameo in the program as Carol otherwise enthralled the presenters and audience . The show featured a total of nine of my Carol images … including, of course, the one chosen for ‘Portrait of Humanity’ … and Carol herself was, without doubt, the star of the show.
The show ran for 6:28 and can be watched here …
Carol Mayer on ‘The Project’
At the same time I was also asked to be involved and interviewed for the State Library of Queensland’s ‘Behind the Lens’ series as part of their current exhibition ‘TWENTY – Two Decades of Queensland Photography’. Five of the many photographers who have contributed to SLQ’s headline exhibition were each asked to feature in a series of twenty minute interviews over the next few weeks … and mine was first off the rank. The piece of SLQ’s Anna Thurgood chatting was interspersed with my exhibition images made during Cyclones Winifred, Yasi, Larry, Ita and Ului.
More info on these recordings, ‘Portrait of Humanity’ and ‘TWENTY – Two Decades of Queensland Photography’ may be found on my blog post at … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog
This film (approximately five minutes in length) was made during my coverage of the ‘Yaws’ disease story on remote Lihir Island and Namatanai New Ireland in Papua New Guinea for the highly respected academic journal ‘Science’. The film is a compilation of many of the still images and video segments that I made whist working with ‘Science’ magazines Amsterdam based International News Editor Martin Enserink. The story also ran in the print edition journal on the 20th July 2018 with my still images gracing the cover and six inside pages.
On the morning that my exhibition “A Photographer’s Life – Part One” opened in Cairns at The Tanks Arts Centre, I was interviewed by ABC Radio Far North breakfast presenter Kier Shorey. An affable geezer, the interview was a bit of fun and touched on the exhibition, my work and history with a camera etc. it runs for nearly thirteen minutes …
ABC Media Watch aired a segment on the lack of media coverage when the Australian Government closed the Manus Island PNG Lombrum asylum seeker detention centre leaving over six hundred refugees without water, food, power, medicines or any other essential services. Myself and journalist Rory Callinan were there … and managed to work inside the abandoned camp. Not sure if the Media Watch coverage was a good or a bad thing!
Prior to the launch of my exhibition “A Photographer’s Life – Part One” at the 2017 Head On Photo Festival in Sydney, I was interviewed by my old mate BBC Australia correspondent Phil Mercer.
The BBC 5 Live interview, hosted by Phil and Rhod Sharp, became a rather lengthy affair and touched on my photographic work over the decades, the then pending exhibition in Sydney, various aspects of photography and photojournalism … and my life in the UK and Australia. It runs for near 22 minutes.
As the winner “Eyes” was projected onto the big screen at a presentation eve at the prestigious FotoLoft Gallery in Moscow (address 4-й Сыромятнический пер., 1/8, строение 6, Moscow, Russia, 105120 !!) on Tuesday November 3rd.
Just a pity I couldn’t get there to see it … but a nice honour to receive a win from the international award, based in Russia, that attracts a host of top photographers from around the planet.
The announcement at the 2016 Walkley Awards … a win in the Nikon Walkley Portrait Prize for my image “Beaten Refugee” of Iraqi asylum seeker Abdullahtif Almoftaji battered in the Lorengau, Manus Island police watch house in Papua New Guinea.
Very pleased that my multimedia piece “Eyes – the Soul of a Photograph” was chosen as one of only ten Finalists in the 2015 “Head On Moving Image Prize” – part of this years Head On Photo Festival. The ten selected works of amazing diversity and quality were shown continuously at the theatrette of the Brenda May Gallery in Waterloo Sydney during the month of May.
“Lifestyle Choices” was made specifically for the 2015 Walkley Storyology Slide Night event. Images from my archives were formed into a photographic narrative around the audio of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s infamous quote about indigenous ‘Lifestyle Choices’ and an intriguing audio track – “Exximent” by Ilario Vannucchi from the album “Sleep Stones”.
Compiled from images selected from my archives specifically for presentation at the ‘Nikon Walkley Brisbane Slide Night’, the Powerhouse Brisbane on 3rd September 2014 – “Eyes” reinforces the axiom that, in photography as in life, the eyes are the gateway to the soul … and the still image.
Before the opening of my exhibition “The Aak Puul Ngantam Stockman” at “The Tanks Arts Centre” Cairns in February 2014, I was interviewed on the subject by ABC Radio’s talented Fiona Sewell.
Fiona took the time to visit the exhibition and see the images in the last stages of set up (and it shows in the interview) … and it went to air on the morning of February 6th … the day before the ‘launch’ evening.
This presentation – “The Aak Puul Ngantam Stockman” – was made for the ‘Nikon Walkley Photographers Slide Night’ in Sydney at the State Library of New South Wales on the 28th May 2013. The images were made on Cape York Peninsula northern Australia and show the work of the mustering operation by the indigenous company APN Cape York. The operation is attempting to provide meaningful employment and occupation for the indigenous population of the area around Aurukun – and break the cycle of welfare dependancy, violence, alcohol and drug abuse. The portraits represented in this presentation were exhibited at The Global Gallery, Paddington, Sydney as a featured exhibit of the 2013 “Head On Photo Festival”.
One of the portrait images was selected as a Winner of the “Head On Portrait Prize” – and another as a ‘Finalist’ in the “Kuala Lumpur International Portrait Awards”.
The music accompanying the presentation – “Fire Serpent” from the album “Shaman’s Dance” – is used by kind permission of the artist Dan Pound.
This ‘Photojournalism Special’ interview first went to air on ABC Radio National’s ‘Media Report’ on Friday 31st August 2012 and has been re-broadcast several times since.
The panel participants in the discussion on the current state of photojournalism were myself, Andrew Meares from Fairfax Media Canberra and April Fonti, picture editor from AAP. (The discussion begins at about 1 minute 20 seconds and lasts till the end at 28 minutes 30 seconds).
This presentation was chosen as the Winner of the Nikon Walkley Photographers Slide Night at the Powerhouse in Brisbane on 7th August 2012. It depicts, in still images and a beautiful musical piece, the current plight of the poor in Hong Kong – acknowledged as the Worlds richest city.
A light hearted look at the obsession with dogs in the Hong Kong fishing village of Sai Kung … but with a serious message. Sunday’s see Sai Kung dog owners parading their pets along the water front and lunching with their dogs in the many water side restaurants. The town is awash with doggie boutiques, many vets and even a doggy bakery. The obsession can be traced back to the former UK administrations attempts to limit the human birth rate. The move proved successful over the years and Hong Kongese substituted dogs in the family to replace babies. The human birth rate in Hong Kong is now one of the lowest in the World.
As the media industry declines and respected journalists and photojournalists are bundled involuntarily from their newspapers in droves, Richard Aedy from ABC’s Radio National hosts a somewhat optimistic ‘panel talk’ on the future of photojournalism.
Running for 28 minutes and 30 seconds, Richard’s ‘Media Report – Photojournalism Special’ segment features experienced photojournalists Andrew Meares from Fairfax’s Canberra bureau, deputy pic editor of AAP April Fonti … and a certain Cairns freelancer … Me !
