photographic portraits

Mentioned in Dispatches from Budapest …

… Nice … 4 X Honourable Mentions in the 2022 Budapest International Foto Awards (BIFA) announced yesterday.

You’ve likely seen the work before on this blog, social media or elsewhere … but always nice to receive a little more kudos. So … here they are …

1. “Veronica – Where Home Brew Kills” – People/Children – Five year old Veronica Barnes on Mornington Island in far northern Australia. Her remote indigenous community is suffering the ravages of a dangerous ‘Home Brew’ alcohol epidemic. Veronica is growing up in a community where community members – including children – are dying from alcohol related issues and severe diabetes.
2. “Scooter- Paralympian” – Editorial/Sport – Swim Paralympian Grant “Scooter” Patterson has diastrophic dysplasia, a joint fusion disability connected to dwarfism. He was catapulted to cult hero status around the planet when he won silver and bronze swim medals at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. His nickname comes from his constant form of transport – a three wheel scooter.
3. “Mother Africa” – People/Culture – As a black Colorado born African American, Aurora Coulter is acutely aware of her heritage, the treatment of her coloured predecessors and forebears in the United States – and also the history of Australia’s indigenous population since supposed ‘settlement’.
4. “Covid Vax & Ice Cream” – People/Portrait – After receiving her first Pfizer Covid-19 vaccination in her remote Yarrabah far north Australia home, 67 year old aboriginal Leanne Bulmer sits with her ‘reward’ – a free ice cream from the ice cream van that was arranged to follow the on foot ‘door to door’ doctors and medical teams through the indigenous community.

Taking some of the gloss off the BIFA announcement was the insane decision by both IG and FB to ‘remove’ the tasteful and respectful ‘news’ image of Veronica citing their ‘community standards’ and impose a ‘ban’ … whilst they constantly bombard social media with unsolicited overtly sexually blatant images of females displaying their various ‘bits’. Go figure …

You may check out where all four of these images have previously gained attention on my ‘Awards’ page here.

Also a special mention and a brilliant result for Cairns colleague and friend Emese Gyalog who won a ‘Bronze’ award and also 4 x Honourable Mentions … (and who just happens to be in Budapest right now.)

Big Thanks to my subjects … Veronica, Grant ‘Scooter’ Patterson, Aurora Coulter and Leanne Bulmer.

Images © Brian Cassey

Budapest International Foto Awards (BIFA 2022 - Honourable Mention X 4 - "Veronica - Where Home Brew Kills", "Scooter", "Mother Africa" & "Covid Vax & Ice Cream" - by Brian Cassey

 

Documenting Mt Mulligan Mine Disaster 1921 for Aus Geographic …

How do you illustrate, in the middle of a pandemic, a story of a tragedy that happened one hundred years ago in a remote part of Australia ? That was the delightful challenge that I was set by Australian Geographic for their story in the just published March/April ’22 edition on the September 1921 Mt Mulligan mine disaster on Cape York Peninsula that took the lives of seventy five miners. 

Journalist Denise Cullen initially came up with the names of several people who had strong connections to Mt Mulligan both before and after Australia’s second largest mine tragedy in 1921. A couple were in then Covid Delta locked in New South Wales so ‘out of bounds’. 

However, most were fortunately in Queensland and so began a several weeks quest around the Sunshine State to find and photograph these fascinating individuals. I found and made portraits … and listened fascinated … as they sat and told me their stories in Cairns, Mackay and the Atherton Tablelands.

Ken Best worked in the mine up until it’s final closure in 1957 and told of older miners stories of ‘ghosts’ in the mine. Pam Millett’s grandfather had a contract to cart logs to the mine to shore up the ceilings and roof, and he was delivering logs at the time of the deadly explosion. Helen Scott and her family were the last to leave the mine settlement when it was finally closed and  ‘removed’. Desley Brkic’s grandfather was the first to witness the smoke from the mine explosion. 

Arguably, though, the most emotional image for me was found at the end of a journey to Mackay to photograph an object.

Stephen Smyth of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is the ‘keeper’ of an inanimate object that, for me, summed up the story of the disaster perfectly in a simple single frame … a battered ‘Waltham’ pocket watch that was on the person of miner George Doran James when he was killed in the explosion. The watch ‘stopped’ at the moment George, along with his son and seventy three others died at nine twenty five that morning. 

It was a pleasure to be afforded the time to portray and meet these fascinating people over a time frame that is rare these days … (Thanks AG and Editor Chrissie Goldrick) and to be involved in this story that is a part of Australia’s history.

Check out Denise’s story and my images (including two whole page pics) spanning ten pages of Australian Geographic print journal 167 March/April edition … on sale now.

Images – top – Desley Brkic reflects on the disaster at her home in Tinaroo, centre – the ‘Waltham’ watch, worn by a blast victim, that stopped at the moment of the explosion, bottom – ex miner Ken Best of Mackay.   © Brian Cassey, Magazine © Australian Geographic