TV, Radio … and More … !
An amazing couple of weeks …
It seems that the ‘Portrait of Humanity’ award and projection in ‘space’ of two of my pics hit ‘the spot’ with a variety of media … and I’ve spent some time on interviews with various TV, radio and other media outlets talking about it rather than making new images 🙂
First off the rank was ABC Far North correspondent Sharnie Kim who did a great job on her ‘Portrait of Humanity’ story for publication on the ABC web site at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-12/carol-mayer-photograph-shortlisted-in-portrait-of-humanity/12335282 . Sharnie not only went into the back story of my two selected images … ‘The Skin I’m In’ and ‘Ramnami’ … but also sourced several other ‘short listed’ pics from other photographers.
Didn’t take long for radio to get in on the act … 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
The biggest buzz, however, was the piece on the top rating Channel Ten news program ‘The Project’. Really pleased that the program centred on the my amazing subject, burns survivor Carol Mayer, her strength and her story following the fire tragedy when she was a young mum. 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 made a little cameo telling of how the pic came about and our relationship. Carol was amazing throughout the interview … and the comments at the end of the segment by show host Lisa Wilkinson were worth watching alone. The show featured a total of nine of my images of Carol … including, of course, the one chosen for ‘Portrait of Humanity’.
The show ran for 6:28 and can be watched here …
Carol Mayer on ‘The Project’
Whilst all this was going on 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. Had a nice long chat with SLQ’s Anna Thurgood … the piece of us chatting was also interspersed with my exhibition images made during Cyclones Winifred, Yasi, Larry, Ita and Ului … and the result was broadcast online last Thursday along with a Q&A. However, you can still catch the entire twenty minute interview here below (sadly without the Q&A) …
State Library of Queensland – ‘Behind the Lens’ – ‘TWENTY – Two Decades of Queensland Photography’
All the above audio and video files may also be played … along with many more from the past … on the ‘Play’ page of my web site at https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/play
Now … back to work making more pictures 🙂
The Good News … but … The Saddest News Of All …
I confess … it’s hard to write this one … (but please read on … )
Two women … one young and vibrant … the other a little older but with an immense strength … two very different stories.
The link … apart from a little similarity of pose etc … is that both have just been announced as Winners of Bronze Awards in the Budapest International Foto Awards (BIFA – Hungary). images ©Brian Cassey
The saddest and must unfair news is that Carol (“The Skin I’m In” – first pic) died last weekend at the end of a far too short life full of tragedy, pain and many triumphs of will … on the very day these awards were announced. Carol was severely burnt in a house fire as a young mum. Her family was told she would not survive. Following a year of coma, countless skin grafts and care … survive she did. She made the most of it …
She dedicated the years since the accident to spreading the message to other burns survivors that there is still much to live for and celebrate. Carol’s rationale in allowing me to make personal images of her showing the extent of the burns to her body was part of that ideal. The work … and the positive reaction to the work … gave Carol added confidence to engage in speaking engagements that provided hope to many.
My images of Carol turned up in numerous awards, news articles and TV programs … and there are links to many on my blog pages. Amongst them are … “They Did It … Pics In Space X 3” which tells of Carol’s image (and two others of mine) being sent and projected in ‘Space’ and the resulting feature on the TV program “The Project” . More on the subject here at “Pics in Space’ … Out of This World with ‘Portrait of Humanity” . (The projection of Carol’s pic in ‘space’ and transmitted across the Universe … now seems very fitting.) There are many more and Carol’s images have been a regular occurrence on my ‘Awards Page’.
I spent more time talking to Carol than actually photographing her … she was my friend … myself and the community will sorely miss but never forget her.
… and then we have Bonn Marie … young, vibrant and all red hair, freckles and an innate curiosity with the World. She’s fun, deep and intelligent … and a joy to work with. Couldn’t help but name the second image “Bonn – Asking the Question”.
Somewhat strange that these two pics were recognised together with Bronze Awards … Carol’s in People Portrait and Bonn’s in Fine Art Portrait.
Images © Brian Cassey