Degarra

TWO at the Clarion Awards …

… utterly chuffed to win the two major photography prizes at last eves “The Clarion Awards” (Queenslands Media Awards) in Brisbane … Best News Photo for “Alive – Bill & Michell’s Miraculous Escape From Jasper” … & … Best Photographic Essay for “Jasper Brings Once in a Century Flooding”.
A terrific evening amongst many media colleagues and friends old and some new. Well worth the trip from the tropics to the big city ;-).

The night really was a reminder that the media industry is still alive and kicking …. the work of the category winners was a real credit to all … and I was extremely gratified to be just a part of it.

Thank You to the MEAA (especially the Queensland branch) for continuing to organise such a great media event.

First image below is my winning Best News Photo … a work that is very close to my heart. Thank You Bill and Michelle from Degarra who put up with me at an extremely fragile time of their lives … to The Australian pic editors Michael Bilbe-Taylor and Milan Scepanovic who entrusted me with a very difficult and complicated assignment … and to gun journo Michael McKenna who did a great job of crafting the story via a very crackly phone line.

The following twelve images is my winning photo essay … made from when Jasper first reared it’s destructive head, through the record breaking rain falls and on to the start of ‘recovery’. 

Oh yeah … the judges comments are there too at the bottom. 

(Must also mention my medical mate Dr Richard Jackman who managed to get me back out working during the cyclone event after a busted vertebrae incurred during a rain sodden stair fall 🙂 )

Images © Brian Cassey  @brian_cassey

Silver in Paris … But Not In The Olympics …

… it’s the … 2024 Prix De La Photographie De Paris … Paris Photo Prize … or PX3 for short.

PX3 is arguably the most prestigious and largest annual photography prize in Europe … so it was excellent when an email dropped in on the weekend with two pieces of excellent news.

The major item of news was the announcement that my image “George at the Bus Stop – Dr George Skeene OAM” … had been awarded SILVER in the ‘Portrait’ section of the prizes. I momentarily came across George at a Cairns bus stop and managed a few portraits before his bus whisked him away. Sadly, George is currently in ill health and I do hope this recognition cheers him up somewhat. You may read more about George and our encounter … and the previous awards his portrait has featured in by visiting … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/images/2023/06/george-at-the-bus-stop/ … and … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/awards/

Also in the email was the news that my work “Escaping Cyclone Jasper Alive – Bill & Michelle” received an Honorable Mention, also in ‘Portrait’. Bill and Michelle are lucky to be alive after surviving the Cyclone Jasper flood event. Their story of being swept from their Degarra home of 45 years and clinging to trees for ten hours in the midst of a once in a hundred year flood is both fascinating and frightening … and you may find more details of their ordeal and survival here … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/images/2024/01/bill-michelle-cyclone-jasper/

Massive Thanks and respect to my subjects who were … and still are … going through very difficult times in their lives. I seriously respect you all for your patience and understanding in allowing me the opportunity.

Of course … thanks also to PX3 for the giving my work some ‘air’ 🙂 .

Images © Brian Cassey

Barcelona & the Pollux Awards …

… very welcome news from Barcelona this morning regarding the 21st Pollux Awards … the prestigious International photography prize hosted by famed Spanish based FotoNostrum Magazine. Even better is that the news involves three of my (at the moment) lesser known works.

“The Last Image of Alf … Alf Neal OAM” has, up to now, been somewhat overshadowed by another earlier image I made of Alf on his hundredth birthday with his great great grandson Kailan … “100 Years & 3 Weeks … Alf Neal OAM” … which has been recognised numerous times around the planet and in Australia.

So it was a gratifying experience to see the portrait of my old mate Alf … made on the verandah of his Yarrabah home in the last days of his one hundred and first and final year … selected as the ‘Winner’ of Pollux ‘People’ category. I know that Alf, if he was still around, would be immensely proud … and I’m sure that his Yarrabah family will be too.

The ‘icing on the cake’ is that two of my so far ‘unsung’ images … “Voices & Bubblegum … Aurukun” & “Surviving Cyclone Jasper … Bill & Michelle” … were both awarded ‘Honorable Mentions’ in the same ‘People’ category … a nice ‘triple’ 🙂 . The ‘Bubblegum’ pic was made at ‘Indigenous Voice to Parliament’ referendum pre-polling in Aurukun, when young Kythie Yunkaporta was more enthralled with the bubblegum skills of Shuntay Marpoodin. The image of Bill and Michelle Dunn was made as they told their harrowing story of survival at their Degarra (Bloomfield) home destroyed in the massive flooding that followed Cyclone Jasper.

The Pollux Awards have been good to me over the years … and this is the fourth year in a row that I’ve been fortunate to be selected as ‘Winner’ of the ‘People’ category (earlier ‘wins’ … 20th Edition here 19th Edition here, 18th Edition here ).

One of the nicest things about the Pollux Awards is that the winners works do end up as physical framed photographs on a wall … the very prestigious walls of the FotoNostrum Gallery, Mediterranean House of Photography, in Barcelona, Spain. That will happen from July 2025 … (a nice time to be in Barcelona and Spain 😉 ? ).

Very nice also to be in the good company of my US photojournalist mate and Pulitzer Prize winner, Michael Robinson Chavez, whose work was selected in the Pollux ‘Documentary & Reportage’ category.

You may find all of this years Pollux Awards winners in a special edition FotoNostrum Magazine here … https://www.fotonostrummag.com/21-pollux … my work is on pages 64 & 65, whilst Michael Robinson Chavez’s works are on page 116.

Images © Brian Cassey

Bill, Michelle … & Cyclone Jasper …

“Forgotten in a Paradise Lost to Disaster” 

… that’s the headline The Australian used above my image of Bill and Michelle Dunn standing in the wreckage of their home, published earlier this week.

Their rural property at the tiny far north community of Degarra on the bank of the Bloomfield River Cape York, was not just flooded but scoured away by near 3 metres of rainfall over two days in the aftermath of Cyclone Jasper. 

The pic was used 5 columns across page 3 … (and if it wasn’t for the coronation of Australia’s Danish Queen would likely have been on page 1) … and is arguably the most moving and emotional image I’ve made for some time.

Bill (73) and Michelle (58 ) managed to escape the torrent with their lives as the waters rose “a foot every ten minutes” forcing them to swim out of their kitchen window. Using wound sheets Bill tied the couple to a tree but the flood waters grew too high. Fearing the worst they had to let go … and were swept by the rapidly rising waters to a higher tree where they sat for ten hours before being rescued by another local – their son – in a ‘tinnie’. 85 year old neighbour Ray Dark wasn’t so lucky … he was swept away and is believed to have drowned.

On Sunday … a month after the flood event … I choppered to Wujal Wujal and Degarra with Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr to meet and document the couple and hear their story.

Clearly still highly traumatised, Michelle didn’t want to go right up to the shattered and still saturated remains of the house where she had spent much of her life … “I can’t do it, I can’t do it” she said on the edge of tears. I did manage a few portraits with their house in the background amongst the wreckage and destruction … until Michelle broke down in tears and fell into Bill’s chest. This was one of my very last frames of the few made of Bill and Michelle together that day.

Degarra is still waiting for the ADF to arrive to help Bill, Michelle and the rest of the community start recovery and begin the rest of their now vastly different lives.

Was a very emotional day …

Image © Brian Cassey, (the bottom image is an emotional ‘crop’) … the page 3 image © The Australian