Ben Apfelbaum

NIKON WALKLEY AWARDS 2023 @ STATE LIBRARY

Robert Cianfone ‘Just Another Day’
Eddie Jim ‘Fighting not Sinking’ Nikon Portrait Photo of The Year
David Gray Golden Kiss

The Nikon Walkley Press photography exhibition celebrates the achievements of Australian photographers across a range of genres from news and sport to portrait and visual essays. This exhibition showcases their work and honours their skills in transforming fleeting moments into the outstanding images of the year.

The Nikon Walkley photographic awards are part of the highest accolades in Australian news reporting. The Walkley Awards have recognised excellence across all media since 1956. The Walkley photography awards are now in their 21st year.

In selecting three finalists in each category from more than 3000 images entered, the Walkley judges looked for newsworthiness, impact, creativity and technical skills.

This exhibition showcasing the 2023 finalists encompasses a range of subjects – from politicians to every day folk, from owl backyards to the furthest corners of the globe.

In an adjoining room there is a slideshow of all the entries.

The exhibition runs at the State Library until 24th of January 2024.

Featured photo : Quinn Rooney ‘Matilda Joy’ Nikon Press Photograph Of The Year 2023.

Review 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.