Ben Apfelbaum

CAROLS IN THE DOMAIN

Billed as the largest event of its kind in Australia Carols In The Domain for its 36th year took place on a balmy Saturday night, 22nd December, 2018.

An announcement estimated the crowd at 50,000 but a further 20 to 30,000 attended the full dress rehearsal the night before.

It is traditionally  broadcast on the Channel 7 network and was this year hosted by the Sunrise Team; Samantha Armytage, Natalie Barr and David Koch.

However when you go to the event there is so much more to do than  seeing the Carols. There are carnival rides for the kids, taking selfies with Santa, and riding in his sleigh, exploring the giant Coca Cola truck as well as Mary Poppins big red London double decker bus.

For the VIPs, sponsors and performers there was a white carpet to be traversed. Artists appearing in the show included the Wiggles, Samantha Jade, Penny McNamee, Isaiah Firebrace, Troy Cassar-Daley, Mark Vincent, Todd McKenney, Rachael Beck, Ross Wilson and many more.

There were also musical numbers from some big shows including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mary Poppins  and Muriel’s Wedding.

Due to its association with Disney Mickey and Minnie Mouse made an appearance as well as the highlight for many little ones, the arrival of Santa Claus.

The huge choir and orchestra was conducted by Graeme Press who was celebrating his tenth anniversary in the role.

Young stars of Australian Opera were also featured and the evening concluded with a spectacular display of fireworks.

All the proceeds of candles bought on the night went to the Salvation Army.

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum (c)

 

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.