Ben Apfelbaum

TIKKUN OLAM (FROM THE HEBREW, “TO REPAIR THE WORLD”) EXHIBITION @ WAVERLEY LIBRARY

TIKKUN OLAM with its sub theme ‘my place + your place = a better place’ is a multi-cultural exploration and exhibition co-presented by Jewish Arts and the Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival with B’Nai B’rith as its principal sponsor.

The underlying theme of this exhibition embraces all of the values required to make the world a better place. These core values include social justice, friendship, generosity, peace and the environment. The exhibition, curated by Estelle Rozinski, recognises the universal significance of the family in every culture. By inviting artists of Aboriginal, Korean and Jewish communities to share in the exploration of their personal experience through Art, Rozinski has begun a significant and beneficial  multi-cultural conversation.

The official launch took place on the evening of Tuesday  9 August in the foyer of Waverley Library which was filled to capacity. Opening night guest speakers included Janelle Evans, recipient of the Wingara Mura Bunga Barrabuga Fellowship, Sydney College Of The Arts, Vic Alhadeff CEO of the Jewish Board Of Deputies, Estelle Rozinski and Paul Jung, a Korean pastor.

A digital animation  competition was held for young people in 2015 and the winner was announced on the night – Zoe Gross, aged 14. She started to compile her digital project as part of Bat Mitzvah commitments.

Students from SCEGGS Darlinghurst and Moriah College facilitated in the smooth running of them evening’s proceedings.

Many of the artists were present and took delight in posing in front of their artworks. The exhibition ranges over both floors of Waverley Library and runs until 7 September 2016.

All images in this post (c) 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.

One comment

  1. Please keep this cultural festival going. It is a wonderful example of goodness and love outshining animosity and hatred. Our world needs more of these festivals and exhibitions. They point to the direction that we all should be following. Our guiding values matter more than anything else. Mazel Tov!

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