Melbourne

A Catalyst 40 Years Ago … “Australian Sports Photo of the Year” …

… blimey … FORTY years ago as a young pup I was awarded my first photo prize as the (highly unexpected) winner of the “Australian Sports Photo of the Year” !

Sponsored by Kodak and Adidas in 1985, it was the inaugural edition of the awards celebrating Australia’s best sports images with a very large cash prize, a weeks holiday on the Gold Coast and photo product for the lucky winner … me ! 🙂 . 

The announcement and prize presentation was televised from Melbourne as a part of the “Australian Sports Star of the Year” awards. I had to buy a suit and tie (and SHOES) to attend 😉 !

It was a massive shock to win, especially as the other two finalists were staff photographers from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (who weren’t too pleased that a little ‘nobody’ from tiny Cairns had pipped ‘em ).

The winning pic (below) of gun Cairns skier Steve Hook mid slalom on Trinity Inlet Cairns was made on film with a Nikon FM2 and a squeeze focus Novoflex 200mm lens. (I was long a big fan of the squeezey focus Novoflex glass … 200, 400 & 600mm.)

My win was a catalyst for lots of interest from the news media and picture editors … and, in effect, was the precursor to the expansion of my photography into more challenging and rewarding press work and photojournalism. 

This image was a feature of my 2017/2018 exhibition “A Photographer’s Life – Part One” and also features in my hard cover large format collectors book “A Photographer’s Life – Part One & Part Two” available here.

Many Thanks to Steve Hook, brother Howard and the others of the Cairns waterski fraternity of the time. Big Thanks also to John Croucher of the Cairns Yacht Club who nagged me incessantly to enter into a photo prize for the first time.

(Nb … if you fancy water skiing on Trinity Inlet in this day and age the crocodiles would make short work of you !)

Image © Brian Cassey @brian_cassey … Kodak/adidas Australian Sports Photo of the Year 1985

Artist Tony Clark … Unsculpted …

… a great pleasure to meet and photograph Australia’s highly acclaimed artist painter, Tony Clark, at his Mission Beach tin shack home studio for a five page feature story in last weeks The Australian Weekend Magazine.

Tony is one of Australia’s most respected artists. For over four decades his uniquely styled paintings have been testing the boundaries between genres and disciplines and borrowing from the histories of art, architecture and theatre design along the way. He has lived and worked in Sicily in Italy and Essen in Germany and is now back in Australia at Mission Beach working on a new exhibition “Unsculpted”.

The exhibition, which opens at the University of Melbourne Buxton Contemporary on November 1st for a massive seven month run, will consist of around 100 paintings spanning over forty years of Tony’s work.

I spent two days with Tony making portraits and pics of him working on pieces in his ramshackle studio whilst gun journalist Ariela Bard got her material for her brilliant story with the intriguing title “Art, Crocs & Rock ’n’ Roll”.

I’m fondest of this first horizontal portrait of Tony (top) , whilst the magazine used a similar vertical version filling the whole second page of the article … so pretty happy with that. Also fond of the second image (bottom) of Tony amongst his mountains of art books that he collects and devours for inspiration. More of my pics were used on the other pages in the magazine.

Not only is Tony a highly regarded, brilliant and innovative artist but also a damn fine bloke. Thanks for the hospitality, Tony … great to work with you Ariela !

Image © Brian Cassey

Australian artist Tony Clark opens his new exhibition "Unsculpted" at Buxton Contemporary in Melbourne on November 1st. Images for story in The Weekend Australian by Brian Cassey
Australian artist Tony Clark opens his new exhibition "Unsculpted" at Buxton Contemporary in Melbourne on November 1st. Images for story in The Weekend Australian by Brian Cassey

Six weeks and the Commonwealth Games …

The Commonwealth Games is now well and truly over … the stories of triumph and endeavour (and a little controversy) slowly fading into history.

Personally, ‘GC 2018’ meant six weeks of photographic employment … five weeks around the country with the Commonwealth Games ‘Queen’s Baton Relay’ … and a further week covering the fourteen Commonwealth Games basketball events in Cairns for Australian Associated Press (AAP) including the visit of … ahem … ‘basketball fan’ HRH Prince Charley.

All very rewarding … and a satisfactory little ‘earner’..

The rest of this post was penned on my return from the ‘Queen’s Baton Relay’ stint back in January … but has been held over till now to satisfy any contractual requirements.

“Just back from a manic, chockers but fantastically rewarding full month criss-crossing Australia with the Commonwealth Games Queens Baton Relay … Thanks to team mate colleagues Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and Colin McPherson (they are Scottish but I won’t hold that against them) … and the GOLDOC crew.

Commencing on the 23rd December and running (almost literally) to the tail end of January, I travelled, in order, to Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Hobart, Perth, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Stradroke Island, Gold Coast, Townsville, Palm Island, Gold Coast, Springbrook, Uluru, Melbourne, Warrnambool, the Great Ocean Road … and Adelaide. We took in Australia’s top sporting events … the Boxing Day ‘Ashes’ test match in Melbourne, the finish of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race (including Taste of Tasmania) in Hobart, the Perth Cup (horses) and Hopman Cup (tennis) in Western Australia, ‘A League’ football Sydney FC V Newcastle at Allianz Stadium, the Sydney ‘Ashes’ test match at the SCG, the Brisbane International tennis (with Rod Laver, Roy Emerson et al), the Magic Millions beach horse run on the Gold Coast, the National Sports Museum at the MCG and the Tour Downunder cycle races in Adelaide … and climbed each of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (with Ian Thorpe), the Q1 building (322 metres) at Surfers Paradise and the roof of the Adelaide Oval. We also took the Queens’s Baton to Uluru, Palm Island, the Twelve Apostle’s and Springbrook National Park.

I met and worked with some wonderful people … athletes, baton bearers, the relay team members and myriads of people who showed great interest in “The Baton” … whilst catching up with many photographer colleagues at distant parts of the country. I also made the odd photograph or two … ”

Below are just three of those … made at Uluru, at Surfers Paradise (Magic Millions) and at the peak of the Sydney Harbour Bridge …

Images © Brian Cassey and GOLDOC

 

Queen's Baton Relay 2018 - Uluru - Brian Cassey GOLDOC

Queen's Baton Relay 2018 - Magic Millions Beach Run Surfers Paradise - Brian Cassey & GOLDOC

Queen's Baton Relay 2018 - Sydney Harbour Bridge - Ian Thorpe - Brian Cassey & GOLDOC

 

Inside Manus … at the ‘Fox Gallery’, Melbourne …

Great weekend ‘down south’ in Melbourne … and pretty intense too. Arrived at Tom Goldner’s ‘The Fox Darkroom & Gallery’ from Cairns with less than an hour to spare before the scheduled opening of my “Inside Manus Detention Centre” collection. Tom, his meticulous assistant Leni Fohringer and ‘The Fox’ crew had performed a wonderful job hanging the work and readying the gallery and the (essential) refreshment for the exhibition launch eve.

Tom had been relentless in his desire to show my work from inside the Lombrum asylum seeker detention centre, made just two days after the Australian government closed it down early last November with over six hundred men still inside. Journalist Rory Callinan and myself were extremely fortunate to gain access inside the abandoned camp … built by the Australian government at astronomic cost just a few years back … to document the plight of the hundreds left in the tropical heat with no power, no food, no water, no medicines … and no services.

The evening was excellent and the crowd large, engaged and enthusiastic. Great to have good photographer friends and colleagues Tracey Nearmy and John Donegan in attendance … and also Nikon’s tireless Professional Markets Manager Julie Kimpton. Oh yeah … we even managed to collect a tidy amount of cash from donations during the evening which will be passed on to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

On Saturday it was back to ‘The Fox’ for a presentation of an expanded ‘projection and chat’ version of my “A Photographer’s Life – Part One” collection … previously hung in Sydney and Cairns … in front of a twenty plus seated audience. Managed to natter about the show accompanied by the projection of over a hundred images for over the two hours of the event … hopefully without boring the pants off the paying patrons too much.

I really do need to sincerely thank a host of people for their support in getting  “Inside Manus Detention Centre” on the wall and a success … Tom Goldner for his enthusiasm, determination and great gallery space, Leni for her boundless energy and organisational skills, Prism Imaging for their fantastic printing of the work, Julie Kimpton and Nikon Australia for their invaluable assistance, Alison Stieven-Taylor from ‘Photojournalism Now’ for her wonderful promotional help, the entire ‘Fox’ team of volunteers and associates … and all those that made it to ‘The Fox Darkroom & Gallery’ on the weekend for the two shows. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Also thanks to the  ‘Milk Bar Mag’ and ‘Broadsheet’ publications in Melbourne for their coverage and promotion of the show.

“Inside Manus Detention Centre” is open at ‘The Fox Gallery’, Kensington, Melbourne till March 4th.

Images All © Brian Cassey

'Inside Manus Detention Centre' at the Fox Gallery Melbourne - by Brian Cassey

… the quiet before the opening …

'Inside Manus Detention Centre' at the Fox Gallery Melbourne - by Brian Cassey

… but it soon got a little busy …

'Inside Manus Detention Centre' at the Fox Gallery Melbourne - by Brian Cassey

… unmistakably Nikon’s Julie Kimpton on the right …

'Inside Manus Detention Centre' at the Fox Gallery Melbourne - by Brian Cassey

… Pakistani refugee Ezatullah Kakar on the boat to the Lombrum detention centre with food and medicines …

Bowness Prize Night …

Great evening in Melbourne on Wednesday … “The Wilfred and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize” 2016 celebration night. Didn’t know what to expect at the ‘Bowness’ … never made it to the ‘Finalist’ stage before to find out. However, the inclusion of my image ‘Beef Barons’ in the shortlist this year gave me a reason to travel to the Monash Gallery of Art and experience one of Australia’s highest profile photography prizes.

The space given over to the ‘Bowness’ prize was cavernous. The wall space for displaying the Finalists works … some of them massive pieces … was immense. (I considered beforehand that my photograph was a reasonably large piece … but it was totally dwarfed by many others works. Note to self … remember if ever there is a ‘next time’).

This years prize judging panel was headed by legendary Australian film director, producer and screenwriter Fred Schepisi AO (a bit of a buzz to have your work selected by such an eminent ‘pictorialist’) ably assisted by photographer John Gollings and MGA Director Kallie Blauhorn.

The twenty five grand prize went to the largest work in the show … a striking landscape by Valerie Sparkes entitled “Prospero’s Island – North East 2016”. It could so easily have been any number of the fantastic shortlisted works displayed around the walls.

This years ‘Bowness Prize’ exhibition catalogue took a novel creative turn in the form of a box of ‘postcards’ of each of the Finalists work. Clever …

Below is the catalogue ‘postcard’ of my work ‘Beef Barons’ sitting (centre) amongst many of the other Finalists … and an image of ‘Beef Barons’ attracting a little attention on the exhibition wall.

Images © Brian Cassey and the individual photographers.

Bowness Photography Prize 2016 - Beef Barons - Brian Cassey
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