Ben Apfelbaum

JACK BLACK MAKES A FLYING VISIT TO SYDNEY TO PROMOTE HIS NEW MOVIE KUNG FU PANDA 4

The atrium at the eastern entrance of Westfield Bondi Junction was packed with fans anticipating the arrival of Jack Black who was on a flying, brief visit to promote the movie KUNG FU PANDA 4.

Black voices the protagonist in the animated series of the movie.

The crowd in the atrium was five deep on the ground floor, three deep on the first floor and two deep on the top floor.

Accompanied by lion dancers, Black bursts through the crowds Kung Fu jabbing and kicking his way to the main stage area.

After a few words praising the movie Black plunged in to the ground floor crowd patiently signing panda masks, guitars and of-course doing selfies. Each time he made a Kung Fu pose, the crowd roared.

If you didn’t get enough of Jack Black this time around, he is coming back some time in the mid year with his group ‘Tenacious D’.

KUNG FU PANDA opens in cinemas Thursday 28th March.

Pics and text by Ben Apfelbaum

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 Treborland. 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.