| Brian Cassey Photographer Cairns Australia

The Aak Puul Ngantam Stockman

May 24, 2013May 22, 2013

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.

Words and Images © Brian Cassey

Cape York Cattle Muster Essay …

January 14, 2013

Have now found time to post a new photo essay from the Cape York mustering trip – “Cattle Muster Cape York” – to the web site of my collective ‘fotostrada’ under ‘Latest Stories’. The new essay is in addition to the “Aak Puul Ngantam Stcokman” essay of portraits posted earlier.

This set of images were made during the mustering operations – by horse back, helicopter and quad bike, on the remote property out from the indigenous township of Aurukun. The stock they are mustering, numbering about 5000, are the remnants and descendants of a failed cattle venture in the 1990’s. The participants are a mix of elder experienced former aboriginal stockman, young indigenous men from Aurukun keen to learn the ropes, a white family of head stockman, wife and cook and two daughter Jillaroos, a teacher for the kids and a ‘roustabout’ – all of whom are directly involved in the day to day hands on mustering operation.

The venture is an attempt to provide sustainable employment and a sense of pride in the indigenous town – and break the cycle of booze, drugs, violence and welfare dependency.

They have already had some success with the sale of mustered stock fetching record prices at a recent Mareeba cattle auction.

The work was made for ‘The Australian’ newspaper with text by journalist Michael McKenna and was published over four pages (including page 1) of ‘The Weekend Australian’ edition (see earlier post below.)

Posted below are just three images from the complete essay which can be found in full at http://www.fotostrada.com/#/latest-stories/cattle-muster-cape-york/BCAurukunAPN24

Images © Brian Cassey

Global Gallery and ‘Bus’ Portraits …

June 27, 2012June 5, 2012

An excellent evening last week at the Global Gallery in Paddington Sydney for the ‘opening’ of our ‘fotostrada’ collaborative exhibition – “Portraits on a Bus”.

The exhibit consisted of thirty prints by ‘fotostrada’ members Dean Lewins, Tracey Nearmy, Sam Mooy, Graham Crouch, Mark ‘Crusty’ Baker and myself – from geographically as far afield as India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, all around Australia and even Antarctica – all of them portraying the bus passenger and the machines that convey them.

Gratifyingly it seemed that almost every photographer in Sydney had come along to have a look at the work (and down a free drink or two!) and it was excellent to spend just a little time with media imaging colleagues that I don’t get to catch up with too often!

The entire “Portraits on a Bus” work is now available – for those who were unable to get to Global Gallery – on the ‘fotostrada’ web site at http://www.fotostrada.com/#/latest-stories/portraits-on-a-bus/

In addition my own “Portraits on a Bus” essay, consisting of my exhibition images and a number that just missed out on the exhibition cut, are now on my personal web site at https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/images.php?imagefolder=bus

The “Portraits on a Bus” exhibition was held in conjunction with the “2012 Head On Photo Festival”. Below is a quick pic of the exhibition opening eve at Global Gallery.

Nikon-Walkley Comes to ‘Brissie’ …

October 30, 2012February 14, 2012

Thanks to the Walkley Foundation, the MEAA and – not least of all – Nikon Australia, I travelled ‘down south’ to Brisbane last week to attend the opening of the 2011/2012 Nikon-Walkley Photographic exhibition at the Powerhouse – and the Australian Institute of Professional Photography “Hair of the Dog” conference.

It was excellent to attend the Nikon-Walkley opening eve and to catch up with colleagues and friends – and an honour to give the opening floor talk and to receive an embarrassingly over the top introduction by MEAA Federal Secretary Chris Warren ! Thanks Chris!

It was also an honour to have my image “Carol – Burns Survivor” exhibited amongst some truly fantastic work from Australia’s best press photographers.

(Something I was not so excited about was the ABC radio and TV interviews I was required to do – a learning curve.)

The Powerhouse is a fantastic exhibition space oozing character, all the works were all very well lit … and the staff were super attentive and efficient.

The exhibition runs to February 27th and is very well worth a visit.

Below is an iPhone pic of my image nestled in the Powerhouse’s beautiful exhibition space.

Image © Brian Cassey 2012

Tough ‘Day at the Office’ …

April 28, 2012November 14, 2011

Another ‘reef story’ in the Australian gave me the opportunity for yet another day of underwater imagery (I need the practice!)… this time courtesy of the crew of “Passions of Paradise” at Long Bommie near Michaelmas Cay off Cairns.

Journalist Sarah Elks wrote of the latest findings that some corals are hardier than expected when faced with climate change … and the story and pic ran over six columns on page 3 today 14th November.

Once again I have to thank a long suffering ‘dive buddy’ … or, in this case. more like a dive ‘daddy’ – “Passions” Adam O’Malley … without whom I would have found it difficult to get an image! Also a thanks to ex pat Frauleins Judith and Claudia who endured a hard day snorkelling amongst the coral gardens.

As on previous underwater occasions I used – with my heart in my mouth – the Ewa-Marine flexible housing (model U-BXP100), this time with my shiny new (thank you Nikon) D700 and trusty old 17-35mm lens.

Below is a tear sheet of the image as used on the Australian page.

“Pain Is My Name” …

April 28, 2012October 2, 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.

Tribal Truth …

April 28, 2012July 25, 2011

Pleased to be selected as the current “Featured Artist” at Tribal Truth – the online community of artists (from the fields of film, video, art, poetry and photography) and humanitarian organisations working on humanitarian issues and social change. Tribal Truth’s object is to “endeavour to increase understanding among people of different race, nationality, religion, age, and gender.”

The work selected is a selection of twenty of my images from Queensland’s indigenous communities. The pictures span the communities of Aurukun, Napranum, Urandangi, Mona Mona, Kowrowa, Mossman, Laura and more.

The complete featured work can be found here – http://tribaltruth.org/2011/07/brian-cassey/

Below is just one of the selected images – from the Mona Mona community – a former mission – near Kuranda and Cairns in north Queensland.

The Reef …

April 28, 2012July 12, 2011

Something a little different from the norm … The carbon tax launch by the Australian Government last Sunday was the catalyst for a visit to the outer Great Barrier Reef at the request of the pic editor at the Australian newspaper.

The requested image – an underwater reefscape – was to accompany a story on the carbon tax and the reef conundrum – the reef desperately needs measures like carbon tax to put a halt to global warming and ensure it’s survival … but any tax may make the reef more expensive for reef tourism operators and therefore less accessible to reef visitors. The jobs of crew and dive staff may also be in jeopardy in the future.

The full story penned by journo Sarah Elks – and the image (also below) – can be found here in the Australian on-line edition.

I travelled to the outer reef with Tusa Dive on their vessel Tusa5. Their relatively young and enthusiastic crew and staff were extremely professional and amazingly helpful and my ‘wishlist’ was attended to very efficiently.
Special mention must go to my long suffering dive buddy/instructor/sitter – Lindy – who showed amazing patience with a wayward non-certified diver!

For anyone interested in such things, the image was made on a Nikon D3S with lens focal length at about 20mm … and the kit nestled rather worryingly inside my German made Ewa-Marine U-BXP10 (flexible) housing. No idea now of exposure settings although they would be in the EXIF data. (actually looked it up … 640asa, 250 @ 5.6, bit of fill flash)