… very happy to be featured nattering to Podcaster and former journalist/photographer Issac McCarthy for … whoa … an hour and twenty odd minutes about photojournalism and my pictorial work over the last several decades. Isaac hosts “How Good Are Humans” podcasts available on Spotify, Buzzsprout and Apple etc … and my little natter with him is his 54th Episode since beginning in 2020.
Isaac entitled this episode “Getting the Shot in Brothels, Refugee Camps and Disaster Zones | Photojournalism | Brian Cassey” … and it can be listened to right here …
Isaac is a terrific talented compere, extremely knowledgable about the media and certainly completes pain staking research on his subjects. In our hour and twenty four minutes and 32 seconds chat Isaac and I touch on the ethics of photojournalism, working and making images in hostile environments, gaining the trust of pictorial subjects, telling stories that inform the planet and ‘keeping the bastards honest’, the stories around several of my favourite images, the future of photojournalism … and much more …
If have you any interest about what I’ve been up to for the last few decades and curious about the ‘realities’ of photojournalism and media photography … pull up a comfy chair (and a couple of glasses of Shiraz or similar) … and relax for near an hour and a half.
Very sadly the exhibition of my work “A Photographer’s Life – Part 3 – Portrait” on the walls of the gorgeous new Mulgrave Gallery on the Cairns Esplanade has now come to an end.
An epic opening eve back in late January followed by the six week run of the exhibition saw scores of viewers and fantastic feedback from visitors from around the planet and Australia (including many from the cruise ships that regularly dock in Cairns).
If you were one that couldn’t/didn’t visit the exhibition during it’s ‘showing’ but are still keen to see what it was all about … or just fancy your own tangible memento of the exhibition … you can still get your hands on your personally signed hard cover limited edition volume featuring all the portraits that were on the walls. The book “A Photographer’s Life – Part Three – Portrait” is now available via the ‘Shop’ on my web site at … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/shop/category/books/ … where you may also find my other Limited Edition signed books available. (HINT: If you are a Cairns ‘local’ or close by please just send me an email (bc@briancasseyphotographer.com) requesting your personalised copy and I’ll hand deliver it to you without any postage/shipping charges saving you $$$’s 🙂 )
Huge Thanks to curator Chris Stannard and the all the rest of the fabulous dedicated team at Cairns Galleries. To Head On Photo Festival director Moshe Rosenzveig OAM who flew from Sydney to open the exhibitions. Amazing ! Also to Collie Jacobs for the image (top) below of the gallery entrance with me spoiling the pic. Second image below is the cover of the book, followed by a couple of pics of the pages inside.
It was a brilliant and amazingly well attended evening.
Moshe Rosenzveig flew up from Sydney to perform the official exhibition openings under the evenings very threatening skies … and also joined me the following day hosting our artist/curators talks.
It is the first time that “Paper Tigers” has been shown outside of Sydney … and it was a real pleasure to see the sixty works by Australia’s wonderful photojournalist community on the expansive walls of the Court House Gallery … including my 2016 Nikon Walkley Portrait Prize winner “Abdullatif – Beaten Asylum Seeker” (pic 5 below 🙂 ). Was a real (lengthy and sometimes complicated) pleasure to work with Moshe to put this significant collection together. The exhibition includes many examples of Australian photojournalism that are historic and helped shaped the face of the country. VERY well worth a visit and a long long look.
My exhibition of ‘Portraits’ is a logical extension of my two earlier exhibitions … A Photographer’s Life Parts 1 & 2. Part One was exhibited in The Tanks Arts Centre in 2017 … and Part Two in the Court House Gallery in 2021. Together they documented not only my involvement in photography from a very early age and across the decades, but also the changes in photojournalism and the media environment. Part Three demonstrates the move more to portraiture from the more traditional and difficult to obtain (and more expensive) pure photojournalism. It also contains several of my fondest and most emotional images. Great to see some of the images projected the size of a house too !
“Word on the Street” is the product of my connections over the years with Trinity Bay High School and their visual arts students and teachers. I have judged and presented their annual photographic portrait prize for near a decade and have many times provided the students with class room talks and street walks where we explored photography and photojournalism. The catalyst for this particular exhibit was a chat with Cairns Galleries curator Chris Stannard (left in image 4). We mentored the students in photojournalism and encouraged them to produce work whilst charging young cadet journalist Isaac Colman with the task of writing their stories. A very rewarding and successful exercise …
Must, must … hugely thank Chris Stannard and all at the galleries staff (Andy, Narelle, Jilara, Laurence etc etc) who worked so hard to put these exhibitions together … Moshe for his time, expertise, words, camaraderie and attendance … the visual arts students and teachers from TBHS … my wonderful subjects (Vale Alf, George S, George C and Desley) … and all who taken the time out to be there on the opening eve or have subsequently walked through the gallery doors !
Also grateful to Charlie McKillop at ABC Radio who very nicely interviewed me on exhibition opening morning for her ‘Drive’ segment. You may listen to that interview here if you have ten minutes and forty seconds to spare.
I do hope to have some fascinating ‘360 degree’ videos of the exhibitions very soon.
In pics below … Mulgrave Gallery entry to “A Photographer’s Life – Part 3 – Portraits” and “Word on the Street” during an accompanying musical event – featuring my image “The Kids of Ali Curung” … my exhibit image “George at the Bus Stop” projected at dusk … some of my portraits on the walls of the Mulgrave Gallery … Cairns Galleries Chris Stannard at the Court House entry to “Paper Tigers” … my work :Abdullatif – Beaten Asylum Seeker” in the Court House Gallery “Paper Tigers” collection … projection of my work “Veronica – Where Home Brew Kills” late on opening evening … lastly, Head On’s Moshe Rosenzveig (right), myself (left – a VERY rare pic), friends from the Cairns photographic community Shaz Spannenburg, Peter Rossi, Charmaine Heyer, Polly Fenton with (rear) Robert Gray from Brisbane … at the Conservatory Bar ‘after launch’ ‘do.
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.
Nice interview spread in the current “Better Pictures” magazine – a 3 page feature on photojournalism and I entitled “Inside Story”.
The articles tells of the challenges of photojournalism in this day and age (from my humble perspective) – and a little about my history in photography and the kit I use.
Good to see my images of Hong Kong Cage Homes, Carol Mayer’s portrait, the Fiji coup and the Holi Festival in Rajasthan used … but not fussed about the text and blocks encroaching on the images look!
Although “Better Pictures” is mainly a publication for enthusiasts any little bit of profile building never goes astray!
If you are reading this then my new totally revamped web site is now LIVE!
Although the overall feel and look of the new site is reminiscent of the older one it is actually a complete rewrite and you will notice huge improvements. The images have all been reworked and resized and now display much larger whilst automatically adjusting to fit the size of the viewing screen. So … if you have a large monitor the images will show nice’n’BIG!
In addition – site navigation has been much improved, new previously unseen photo essays and images have been added, the awards page has been updated … and there is now a brand new additional page -‘Play’- which features slide shows and multi media content.
A very patient and understanding Karl Sandoval from Julian Communication was responsible for the great work on the revamp … and he can now relax and stop dreading my continuous flood of emails!
All in all the new revamped site should greatly improve the viewing experience. If you find any bugs or glitches … or have any comments at all on the new site … please leave a comment here or email me at bc@briancasseyphotographer.com … Thanks!
Below is a screen shot of the new main page showing the improved navigation to the various photographic portfolios and images etc.
