Ben Apfelbaum

SYDNEY GAY AND LESBIAN MARDI GRAS PRESS CONFERENCE

The Mardi Gras Parade is one of  the largest of its kind in the world and the logistics of staging it are more complex and daunting with each passing year.

Held at the Seymour Centre, the Festival hub, the Press Conference advised the media the access an d restrictions applicable to them so that they could be able to have maximum coverage of the event  without interfering with its preparation and staging.

Speaking at this event was the newly appointed Mardi Gras CEO Albert Kruger who amongst among other things introduced himself to the media. Kat Dopper, Mardi Gras Creative Director, marvelled at the fact that a girl from a small country town called Condoblin could come out  and become  the Creative Director of this event. To highlight the social issues promoted  on floats and by the marchers, the theme of the Parade was ‘What Matters’.

She also announced that Sydney would be hosting World Pride in 2023, a biannual event. It will be the first time that World Pride has been held in the Southern Hemisphere and it is expected that there will be global attention on our Mardi Gras as well as increased visitations.

Assistant Commissioner Tony Crandell, in his role as Police Commander of the Mardi Gras, firstly apologised to the 78’s, the first Mardi Gras marchers who were brutally attacked and bashed by the police.He opined that the police force had come a long way since then as it was more ethnically and gender diverse with openly gay and lesbian members, who he believed were treated with dignity and respect.

Commander Crandell said that all mass events were potentially exposed to terrorist and psychopaths, and special measures had been put in place including safety barriers preventing cars from running into people as had happened in Melbourne, as well as overseas.

To augment this event, some  colourful an d vibrant drag queens were on hand to give a sneak preview of who would be participating.

Also on hand were drag queens from South East Asia who suffered oppression particularly under intolerant regimes.

On a different note the Guide Dogs Association announced their participation with two young blind children, a girl with a guide dog and a boy with a cane being on hand to witness the event.

Featured image : Kat Dopper, Mardi Gras Artistic Director. All pics 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.