Ben Apfelbaum

SCHOOL SPECTACULAR 2022 : TRULY SPECTACULAR

Sonja Sjolander, Creative Director

After a pause for Covid the end of year School’s spectacular was back bigger and better than ever.

Having outgrown the Entertainment Centre (which coincidentally was about to be demolished), the school spectacular moved to the Olympic sports arena which could accomodate the increased number of participants. in fact in 2016 the SCHOOL SPECTACULAR  was entered into the Guiness Book Of Records as the largest variety show in the world.

This year’s performance comprised of 4,702 participant. This was made up of a huge choir, orchestra, dancers in the arena and backstage support. The gigantic extravaganza was brought together by the Creative Director Sonja Sjolander.

Relinquishing his baton as a conductor of popular orchestral music, the show was hosted by Jon Foreman. As usual, the shows’  were a sell out as parents, siblings and friends as well as interested  onlookers saw something that could make New South Wales proud of the musical education and stagecraft that the performances showcased.

Careers can emerge from  the SCHOOL SPECTACULAR and the most famous of these were the quartet Human Nature who have had a residency at the Venetian casino for many years in Las Vegas.

Photos 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 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.

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