‘A Photographer’s Life – Part Two’ at The Court House Gallery …

Now just over two weeks since the doors opened on my latest exhibition … ‘A Photographer’s Life – Part Two’ … and one week since a brilliant official opening eve event at the beautiful venue, the heritage listed Court House Gallery.

Following on from ‘A Photographer’s Life – Part One’ … exhibited at the Head On Photo Festival in Sydney and The Tanks Arts Centre in Cairns in 2017 … there was always going to be a ‘Part Two’.

Essentially a ‘Retrospective’, the ‘Part One’ exhibition featured work selected from my archives … negatives from long forgotten boxes and numerous disk drives … that charted the progression from my first roll of film as a pre-teen, through my first paid media work in London town as a teen and onto my career across the decades producing press work that was published around the planet..

‘Part Two’ is a fundamentally different exhibition of work. It contains a few images that didn’t quite make the space cut for ‘Part One’ – but most of the work is new and made from 2016 up until today. Whilst ‘Part One’ was almost exclusively ‘assigned’ media work the ‘Part Two’ images are much less so. The decline in media work and the lack of media opportunity and funding has meant that much of the new work was made independently, often self funded and sometimes just purely personally observational. The photographs emanated from India, China, Sri Lanka, the United States, Papua New Guinea, the UK … and around Australia, 

An integral part of the new exhibition is the ‘story behind the images’. Each work is accompanied by text explaining how the image came about and why. Many of them are quite personal. Feedback from exhibition visitors so far is that the ‘stories’ added a depth and dimension to the images. Gratifying 🙂

The opening eve event on November 5th was a thoroughly enjoyable big success. An individual exhibition opening record crowd of over a hundred and twenty five crammed ‘standing room only’ in the ‘Court Room’ to witness ABC Radio’s Fiona Sewell ‘grill’ me nicely about eight of the thirty seven exhibition images for about forty five minutes. Many Thanks for hosting the event Fiona.  Great to see friends and colleagues past and present .. many I hadn’t seen in years … turn up for the occasion. Thanks all …

Also launched at the event was the large format high definition limited edition collectors book ‘A Photographer’s Life – Part One & Part Two’ … containing … yes … all the images (85 in all over 88 pages) from both ‘Part One’ and ‘Part Two’. All those who order a copy during the exhibition period (till 11th December) with have their names and an acknowledgment printed in the book … and my scrawled as best I can signature too 😉 . Order at the Court House Gallery office or phone either Dayle on 07 40326621 or the office on 07 40326620.

Greatest respect and massive thanks to Curator Chris Stannard , Dayle Jordon, Megan O’Rourke and the rest of the council team who did a brilliant job hanging and presenting the exhibition. 

The exhibition continues until the 11th December Tuesdays to Saturdays 10am to 4pm … another four weeks to take it in. (If anyone would like a ‘personalised’ tour of the work I will be happy to try and do just that … just contact me.)

Below are images … (impossible in small pics to do justice to the exhibition, the work and the gallery) … of the works on the wall, the opening eve event and the book.

Images © Brian Cassey (4), Brendan Radke (2) & Stacey Carrick (1) (Many Thanks Brendan and Stacey)

 

'A Photographer's Life - Part Two' Exhibition at The Court House Gallery Cairns - by Brian Cassey

'A Photographer's Life - Part Two' Exhibition at The Court House Gallery Cairns - by Brian Cassey

'A Photographer's Life - Part Two' Exhibition at The Court House Gallery Cairns - by Brian Cassey

'A Photographer's Life - Part Two' Exhibition at The Court House Gallery Cairns - by Brian Cassey

'A Photographer's Life - Part Two' Exhibition at The Court House Gallery Cairns - by Brian Cassey

'A Photographer's Life - Part Two' Exhibition at The Court House Gallery Cairns - by Brian Cassey

'A Photographer's Life - Part Two' Exhibition at The Court House Gallery Cairns - by Brian Cassey

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York, New York & Photoville …

Feeling extremely fortunate to be in New York for this years ‘Photoville’ festival of photography – a brilliant feast of fine photography set in and around 60 odd shipping containers on the banks of the East River Brooklyn overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

Photoville is only four years young … but has grown quickly into a vibrant showcase of the Worlds best photojournalism, documentary and fine art work. Highlights – and there were very many – included the works of Graham Macindoe (American Exile: Detained, Deported and Divided), Daniel Berahulak (Scenes from the Ebola Crises), Dougie Wallace (Stag, Hens & Bunnies: A Blackpool Story), Stephanie Sinclair (Too Young to Wed), Matt Black (The Geography of Poverty), Misha Friedman (The Iron Closet) and Ruddy Roye (When Living is a Protest) – although to single these out for their excellence is not to disparage the amazing works of a total of over four hundred contributing artists. (For more info on artists and their work check out Photoville’s web site here).

Thanks to the inclusion of the 2015 Head On Portrait Prize – and director of the Head On Photo Festival Moshe Rosenzveig – I had every reason to make the trek to Brooklyn. The 2015 Head On Portrait Prize exhibition was displayed in the centre of the Photoville site gracing the entire side of a massive shipping container … and included my image “Disko Meri”.

The festival opening day was shared with the 14th anniversary of the Twin Towers terror attacks. That evening saw a great sunset over the Hudson and the Manhattan sky line whilst Getty Images projected their ‘Legacy Collection’ of images on the big screen. A poignant moment when the photograph of the Twin Towers exploding 14 years ago to the day appeared with, in the background from ground zero, the twin beams of the ‘Tribute of Lights’ piercing the clouds (see image below).

As well as thousands of compelling images to take in there are also numerous workshops and panel discussions by high profile photographers to attend – and there is also a beer garden!

Photoville runs until this Sunday September 20th.

I’d also like to sincerely thank talented NY photographer Natan Dvir for the very generous use of his cosy pad in the Lower East Side Manhattan for the duration, whilst he was on assignment in Romania. Thanks Natan … !

Below are images from Photoville – two featuring the 2015 Head On Portrait Prize exhibit.

Images © Brian Cassey 2015

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July 4th Times Two …

Have now had a chance to post my new “July 4th USA” pic essay to my personal website at … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/photographs/4th-july-usa/

… in addition to the earlier post on the web site of our photojournalist collective ‘fotostrada’ in ‘Latest Stories’ at … http://www.fotostrada.com/#/latest-stories/july-4th/ .

The pic essay was made in the US coastal community of Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco, California. It is a small community Independence Day Parade chockers with local enthusiasm and involvement. Traditional small town parades such as this are becoming rarer in the US as community values and finances change.

Below I’ve posted another couple of images from the large essay which may now be found here and here .

Images © Brian Cassey 2014

 

Kellicutt …

The job is done …  and the winners announced in the “2014 Kellicutt International Photo Show”.

Myself and fellow judges Scott Atkinson and Oliver Klink had a very difficult task whittling down the final 45 images (from 15 different countries) on the exhibition walls in San Francisco to the final places.

We finally awarded first place to a great image by photojournalist Goran Jovic from Croatia.

Below I’ve posted Goran’s winning image (top) and a couple of the distinguished place getters – ‘Parenting’ by Edward L Rubin (USA) and ‘J.R. Roselio’ by Larry Louie (Canada). All the final 45 images can be found at http://www.kellicutt.org

Images © Goran Jovic, Edward L Rubin, Larry Louie

Home Alone Goran Jovic

Parenting Edward L Rubin

J.R. Roselio Larry Louie

July 4th & San Francisco …

Thanks to the organisers of “The Kellicutt International Photo Show” (of which I am honoured to be one of this years three judges) I found my myself in the coastal community of Half Moon Bay California on the most important day of the year for most Americans – July 4th Independence Day.

Just south of the San Francisco metropolis, Half Moon Bay is a pretty satellite community based around agriculture and fishing. The main street – Main Street (surprisingly) – comes alive on July 4 with a colourful traditional local parade. All can join in the fun …

Parades of this type are becoming rarer as community and family values fade over time.

I greatly enjoyed the atmosphere on the day and making the images and have now posted a pic essay “July 4th” to “Latest Stories” on the ‘fotostrada’ web site at http://www.fotostrada.com/#/latest-stories/july-4th/BC_USAJuly4_31

Tonight (July 5th) I will be attending the big presentation of awards evening at “The Kellicutt International Photo Show”. Fellow judges and photographers Scott Atkinson, Oliver Klink and myself have now selected the winners and place getters from the forty five hanging in the exhibition which were whittled down from the initial circa twelve hundred entries from around the planet. The prize winning works are a diverse selection from all forms of photography including portrait, landscape, wildlife and photojournalism. More about the winners later … ! I’m also deeply appreciative of the invitation and hospitality provided by the photo show organisers Jeff and Kirsten Klagenberg … Thanks Guys!

Below I’ve posted just a couple of teaser images from the pic essay “July 4th”.

Images © Brian Cassey