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

 

‘Carol’ Does it Again …

Will have to get on the ‘blower’ again to voice yet another sincere vote of ‘Thanks’ to my amazin’ portrait subject Carol Mayer.

This morning (Sunday), during a live awards streaming event (which I didn’t bother to watch), it was announced that my “The Skin I’m In- II” image of burns survivor Carol  … took out “3rd Place – Honor of Distinction” in the Portrait category of the huge 2018 “International Color Awards” (11th Annual Edition).

There were a host of great portraits made by some very accomplished photographers selected as ‘Nominees’ in the ‘Portrait’ section  … so it was very rewarding to be amongst the top three ‘Honorees’.  (Although I wish they would learn to spell ‘Honour’ and ‘Honourees’ … and ‘Colour’ … correctly.) Rounding out the top three were portraits by winner Boy Surminski from The Netherlands and second placed Azin Haghighi from Iran.  

“The Skin I’m In – II’ has also been recognised by the 2017 ‘National Photographic Portrait Prize’ and several others.

… ‘uge Thanks’ once again Carol …

Image © Brian Cassey

International Color Awards - Honor of Distinction - Portraits - "The Skin I'm In - II" by Brian Cassey

The Final Frame … Nikon F2 and AFP400TX …

Well that brought back memories …

Back when shooting film and you have one frame left on your roll of thirty six … and something too good to miss presents itself.

Thanks to Renato Repetto‘s excellent AFP400TX project (#AFP400TX, @AFP400TX – see my earlier post) I recently got to revisit that long forgotten scenario. As explained earlier the project aims to get a manual everything Nikon F2 loaded with just one 36 frame roll of Tri-X film into the hands of selected photographers around Australia … and from the resulting images compile capital city exhibitions and a book.

An admirable project that I’m very pleased to be a part of.

I took my turn with the beautiful F2 a couple of weeks ago. Renato has just received my processed images back from the project sponsors Rewind Photo Lab in NSW … and has allowed me to use one image to show you guys what’s going on. (The rest are a secret until the project culmination.)

Prior to making this particular image I had already shot a variety of scenarios and carefully used 35 of the precious 36 frames on the roll. Then I met Geoff …

… and Geoff had a story to tell.

An accomplished musician, Geoff Tozer has been told he is dying. He has been diagnosed with bowel, bladder, bone and advanced spinal cancer. But … he says … “I’m too busy to die”. Geoff told me he’s a friend of Rolling Stones Bill Wyman and accomplished in Wyman’s musicality. He is set to work on the soundtrack of a new movie on the short life of Stones member Brian Jones … possibly alongside musician legends Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Mick Fleetwood.

So … with just that one frame left on my project roll of film I was feeling a bit of pressure when I lined up the image and pressed the shutter to make Geoff’s portrait.

It was with some relief that I received the scanned image (below) from Renato last eve !

The AFP400TX Nikon F2 camera is now winging it’s way down to Victoria for Melbourne photographers Michael Coyne, Jesse Marlow, Tracey Nearmy, Barat Ali Batoor and Andrew Chapman to make their contribution.

Image © Brian Cassey

AFP400TX Project - "Too Busy To Die" by Brian Cassey Cairns Australia