Young (and Old) Guns … The Australian …

… nice to be involved in an exclusive The Australian special on National gun registry and young (and old) gun shooters. The stories and pics ran over most of page 3 in today’s publication and centred on an imminent National Firearms Registry and the controversy over the legislation covering young shooters.

I spent a recent Sunday afternoon at a Mareeba Pistol Club obstacle shooting event talking and making images of the participants whose ages spanned from 12 to over 70 … all something new to me.

Although not yet published, my personal favourite image from that afternoon’s work was a portrait style grab of pistol packing 70 year old Torres Strait resident and experienced shooter Ian ‘Ging’ Butcher, ready to compete with his Infinity 38 SuperComp weapon … a gun with an over A$15000 price tag (top).

Second is the image that graced a large part of today’s The Australian page 3 … 12 year old Quinn Coates-Marnane … and third a screen grab of that page. Featured fourth is a portrait of already very experienced shooter 18 year old Bronte Matthews with hand on her Bul SAS 2 Ultimate racer 38mm Super pistol. Last is Quinn once again at the moment of firing a timed volley at a variety of static targets.

A different way to spend a Sunday afternoon … 

Images © Brian Cassey 

Q&A & Radio … APL2 Exhibition Launch and Nikon Walkley Win …

Last couple of months have been eventful with the launch and five week run of my latest exhibition ‘A Photographer’s Life – Part Two’ at the Court House Gallery Cairns and a timely corresponding announcement of a win in this years Nikon Walkley Portrait Prize.

Grateful that the combined events seemed to attract a far bit of media attention … and struggled through radio interviews about the work and win with Kier Shorey at ABC Far North, Sarah Speller at Cairns FM 89.1, John MacKenzie at 4CA … (and another that won’t air till next month).

All touched on the work in the exhibition … a little on the Walkley … and the background stories to the images.

First up was Kia Shorey on drive time ABC … (not really at my best in a studio at 7am) … play here (below) if you have seven minutes of the will and patience 😉

The 4CA chat with veteran talk show host John MacKenzie was fairly short … but very useful and straight to the point as is John’s way.

Cairns FM 89.1 host Sarah Speller‘s little natter went a little longer at just on five minutes … and it can be played here …

However, by far the longest interview wasn’t for airing on the radio but was an integral part of the opening eve event of the ‘A Photographer’s Life – Part Two’ exhibition at the heritage listed Court House Gallery. Over a hundred folks witnessed ABC Radio’s talented senior presenter Fiona Sewell host an over forty minute Q&A ‘grilling’ (read interview) in the spacious Court Room of the gallery, where we talked in detail about eight projected images chosen from the thirty seven works that made up the exhibition. Here is all forty three minutes worth …

Thanks all in radio land for supplying the audio files … and Thank You for listening 🙂

Mornington … Clarion Media Awards Finalist …

… it’s always a pleasure … a once a year excuse to trek to Brisbane and spend a very pleasant eve with southern media colleagues that I far too infrequently get to socialise with.

The ‘Finalists’ in the Clarion Awards … Queensland’s prestigious awards which recognise the best of the Sunshine States media for their work across the year … were announced this week … and very pleased to be selected as one of three photographers in ‘Best Photographic Essay’.

So … if the Covid virus plays nicely (i.e. elsewhere) … will be off to Brissie in October to enjoy another year of the Clarion Awards ‘presentations’ … this time at a cocktail function at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Greatly looking forward to catching up with photographers Darren England and Evan Morgan (co-finalists in ‘Essay’), David Clark, Annette Dew and Tertius Pickard (finalists In ‘News Photograph’) and ‘Regional’ finalists Rob Maccoll and Cairns colleague Brendan Radke. Big congrats guys n gal. Not forgetting the wonderful journalists, scribes, blunts (whatever you choose to call ‘em) that pen the words that fill the spaces between our photographs.

My selected work is a pic essay compiled from images made for The Sunday Mail and The Australian, documenting the plight of the indigenous residents of the remote Gulf of Carpentaria township of Mornington Island. Entitled “The Queenslanders Left Behind”, it comprises eleven images made during two journeys to the island, concentrating on the issues of housing overcrowding and other social ills.

Five of those eleven pics are here below … from top … Shaylene Yarrick and her children bed down in the lounge of their overcrowded house … Mum Cheree Loogatha and daughter Arizona outside their Gununa house …  Shaylene Yarrick sheds a tear outside her tiny overcrowded home … The Loogatha family yarn around the fire outside their house … Mornington Island sisters Yvonne Wilson (17) and Corrin Wilson (13) suffer from type 2 diabetes. Corrin also has rheumatic heart disease, whilst their mother is receiving dialysis following renal failure.

Very pleased to once again have the chance (it’s now twelve years of ‘Finalists’ with a fair few ‘Wins’ over the last decade and a half) to enjoy Queensland’s media ’Night of Nights’.

Covid-19 … please don’t stuff it up !

Images © Brian Cassey

Clarion Media Awards Finalist - Photographic Essay -“Mornington Island – The Queenslanders Left Behind” by Brian Cassey

Clarion Media Awards Finalist - Photographic Essay -“Mornington Island – The Queenslanders Left Behind” by Brian Cassey

Clarion Media Awards Finalist - Photographic Essay -“Mornington Island – The Queenslanders Left Behind” by Brian Cassey

Clarion Media Awards Finalist - Photographic Essay -“Mornington Island – The Queenslanders Left Behind” by Brian Cassey

Clarion Media Awards Finalist - Photographic Essay -“Mornington Island – The Queenslanders Left Behind” by Brian Cassey

The ABC Story on ‘Paper Tigers’ …

A great piece by ABC journalist Teresa Tan on the ‘Paper Tigers’ project curated by Moshe Rosenzveig and ‘yours truly’ … and one of the highlights of the just completed 2020 ‘Head On Photo Festival’.

Teresa interviewed six of the sixty photojournalists who are participating in ‘Paper Tigers’ …  an anthology of contemporary Australian photojournalism. The published piece delved into the personal back story of the images that each of the six had selected for inclusion in the exhibition and a ‘Paper Tigers’ book that is sure to become a sort after volume. The subject matter captured by each of the six was diverse and the stories of how these images came about extremely illuminating. The six photojournalists whose work is analysed in the ABC article are Tracey Nearmy, Nick Moir, Craig Greenhill, Eddie Safarik, Rob Maccoll … and unashamedly … myself :-). Teresa’s story is available here … https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-17/photojournalism-australian-photographers-share-stories/12247936?fbclid=IwAR2wYuO2fPf9ry0Fb57x5MPBsk95MoLhEcoIoKFHmZA79RpQUGIhePfxgv8

The Guardian also did a fine job highlighting ‘Paper Tigers’ at Head On showcasing the work of Martine Perret, Jaime Murcia, Andrew Chapman, Nic Walker, Michael Coyne, Penny Stevens, Tracey Nearmy, Meredith O’Shea, Glenn Lockitch, Eddie Safarik, Ashley Crowther, Janie Barrett, Jessica Hromas, Delly Carr, Dean Lewins and Alex Coppel. It can be found here … https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2020/may/01/paper-tigers-exhibition-australias-contemporary-photojournalists-in-pictures

You can find more details about the origins of the ‘Paper Tigers’ idea and how it evolved on a previous post on this blog at … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/exhibitions/2020/05/paper-tigers-strippers-head-on-photo-festival/ … which also lists all sixty photojournalists participating in the project.

The ‘Paper Tigers’ exhibition can be found on the Head On Photo Festival site at … https://www.headon.com.au/exhibitions/paper-tigers   … the Limited Edition book ‘Paper Tigers’ can be purchased from the Head On site at … https://www.headon.com.au/product/paper-tigers-book

Sadly,  the physical exhibition of the work at Paddington Town Hall has had to be postponed … however, it is now planned to have the sixty works on the walls in Paddo in early November. Stay tuned on that one …