Ben Apfelbaum

JOYCE MOULLAKIS AND CHRIS WRIGHT : THE MILLIONAIRES’ FACTORY

Jovce Moullakis autographing
Stephen Jones, the Commonwealth Financial Services Minister, launches the publication
Elizabeth Weiss, of Allen & Unwin
Attendees at the launch

In the shadow of the headquarters of the Macquarie Bank at ‘The Title’, the launch took place of THE MILLIONAIRES’ FACTORY. At about the same time it was announced that the Macquarie Bank had officially become the fifth largest bank in Australia.

The book’s subject matter drew the Federal Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones from Canberra to Sydney to launch the publication. In his brief address he emphasised the beneficial competition that the Macquarie Bank has brought to the finance sector.

The book was co-authored by Joyce Moullakis and Chris Wright. They remarked jokingly that their styles were very different but nevertheless complementary. Chris would have his work completed well in advance of the deadline date whereas Joyce completed her work at the very last minute.

Joyce stressed that the book was unauthorised and, in no way, was it endorsed or influenced  by the Bank.

Nonetheless, she was surprised to find that many of its employees were prepared to grant her an interview.  Chris attributed this to the trust that the subjects placed in Joyce’s integrity.

Chris’s subject matter dealt with the extraordinary international reach of the Bank. He was staggered at how many assets the Macquarie Bank has in North America.

‘The Title’ bookshop was packed out with attendees spilling out onto the street.

Featured image : Journalists Chris Wright and Joyce Moullakis with copies of their book,THE MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB. All photos 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 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.