Inside Manus at the Clarions …
Made a bit of a detour on the way home from Mumbai … via Brisbane … to attend the annual Queensland media awards … “The Clarion Awards” at the Exhibition and Convention Centre.
It’s always a great night … hosted by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) … that acknowledges the achievements of the Sunshine States (now somewhat shrinking) media. This year the evening was made a little ‘greater’ for me when awarded a ‘win’ in the “Best Photographic Essay’ category for my work “Inside Manus Detention Centre”.
Although the work has previously been shown as an exhibition (here & here)… it is the first time it has been recognised with an award by, essentially, my peers. Pretty excited and gratified about that.
The work documents the visit of myself and journalist Rory Callinan to the Lombrum Manus Island Detention Centre in Papua New Guinea just two days after it was abandoned by the Australian Government leaving over 600 asylum seekers to fend for themselves with no water, no food, no power … and no services whatsoever. We were the first print media to gain access inside the centre. The work was syndicated around News Ltd publications by News 360.
Below are just a small selection of images from the Winning essay. © Brian Cassey
Thanks MEAA !
Cracking Clarion Winning Eve in Brisbane …
Great evening at “The Clarion Awards” 2022 … the night where Queensland wide media gather together in Brisbane to party, generally misbehave … and share a few awards around.
Very pleased to have picked up one of those awards … ‘Best Photographic Essay’ … with my work from the indigenous community of Yarrabah, “Covid Vax & Ice Cream”. The pic essay consisted of twelve images narrating a door to door covid vaccination campaign by doctors and medical professionals organised to increase extremely low inoculation uptake amongst the populace. I covered the door to door program (with an arranged ice cream van following dispensing free treats) for The Australian who used most of the work either in print or in on-line galleries. One of the pics contained in the essay … of 67 year old Leanne Bulmer with her post Pfizer jab ice cream … has also found much success on it’s own, previously winning several awards around the planet (see here, here, here, here and here … and bottom below.)
The second Clarion photography award category … ‘Best News Photograph’ … was also of a covid nature and taken out by the Courier Mail photographer Lachie Millard. His terrific work showed three year old Memphis being reunited with his mother at Archerfield air field following a two month covid border closure separation.
Magic to catch up with many friends and colleagues from around the State. It’s such an enjoyable annual event and get together. Huge thanks to all at The Clarions and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance for their great organisational skills and presentation at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre. Wonderful …
Below are just four of the twelve images that make up my winning “Covid Vax & Ice Cream” photo essay. To see the complete essay go to my ‘Awards’ page at … www.briancasseyphotographer.com/awards .
Images © Brian Cassey