Ben Apfelbaum

THE BALD ARCHYS : CARICATURE @ ITS BEST

Happy Little Vegemites by James Brennan
Maggle Dear (Beer)
Rabbitoh Man by James Brennan
Scomopoly by Mark Bernard
The ‘Hatch It Job’ by Ingrid Jaugletis
Mona Livia by Judy Nadin

The Bald Archys were conceived as a middle finger salute to the iconic Archibald Prize.

It was conceived by the late Peter Batey in 1996.

Cartoonists  were invited to submit portraits of various political leaders and personalities of the time. Naturally there were many depictions of former prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The winning portrait called ‘Never A Dull Moment’ was that of the late Peter Batey, not riding a noble eagle, but a cheeky cockatoo.

The Bald Archys are on exhibition at the IBIS Hotel Barangaroo on 14 April 2023

After the current Archy tour has been completed,  you can purchase any of the artworks through the Wagga Museum.

Featured image : The winning entry : ‘Never A Dull Moment’ (Peter Batey) by Marty Steel  

Text and images 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.