Ben Apfelbaum

HOLLY THROSBY IN CONVERSATION @ HARRY HARTOG’S

As a multi Aria award nominee, in some circles Holly Throsby is better known as a melodic indie folksinger. In literary circles she is known as a novelist

Although she had written newspaper articles Throsby had not written a novel until she was approached by Richard Walsh, an enfant terrible of the 1960’s and now head of Allen and Unwin.

As a result Throsby in 2016  authored GOODWOOD a rural small town novel  which was a bestseller and reached Number 3 for bestselling fiction in Dymocks book list ratings.

Throsby has stated that growing up in Balmain gave her a feel for village life and touring small regional towns throughout Australia reinforced the impact of village life which has so evocatively percolated into her novels.

Throsby attended Harry Hartog’s booksellers in Bondi Junction leading a discussion about her latest book CEDAR VALLEY. It too deals with the mystery, secrets and vivid characters leavened with humour and affection for the Cedar Valley inhabitants. Critics of this book have compared her to Tim Winton, Thea Astley and Patrick White.

When asked by an audience member if the publisher required any changes to the novel Throsby replied that the only changes required was to do with the novel’s pacing and this was a positive critical response.

There was also discussion about whether the overtly Australian atmosphere and language of the book would limit overseas sales. Like so many artistic ventures, this is unknown.

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.