Ben Apfelbaum

WORLD PRESS PHOTO EXHIBITION : UNREMITTING OVERWHELMING DARKNESS AND DESPAIR

Anush Babajanyan – -Battered Waters
Evgeiy Maloltka – The Siege of Mariupol
Evgeniy Maloletka – Mariupol MaternityHospital Air strike – BEST PHOTO
Jonathan Fontaine – The Nomad’s Final Journey
Kimberly dela Cruz – Death Of A Nation
Lee Ann Olwage – The Big Forget
Mauk Kham Wah – Retiieving The Dead
Musuk Nolte – Oil Spill in Lima
Nick Hannes – New Capital
Tomas Francisco Cuesta – World Champions

It has been another disappointing year for this exhibition.

When I think of a newspaper, and even the long lost LIFE magazine, which pioneered long form photographic essays, I often see photos which display lightheartedness and humorous irony.

The  judges of this exhibition seemed to select the photographers who went to miserable places on earth, the more obscure and  conflict ravaged the better.

The only photograph in this exhibition which was  not  downhearted was  a picture of a truck full of happy Argentine soccer fans. I am not an Argentinian.

The judges seem to have taken a didactic sense of high moral dudgeon at what is a terrible world.

I would respectfully submit that this is too narrow a criterion in assessing images.

In previous years the Sydney leg of the World Press Photo exhibition would fill the two large halls of the State Library.  There would be a fair number of photos that highlighted despair, distress, grief and suffering, however these were augmented by great photos of thrilling sporting moments, cute images of kids and  seniors, and breathtaking nature photography. Most of these photos had a pleasing aesthetic  and could elicit a smile.

The poe faced judges seemed to banish all joy that some images capture and that are, on occasion, included in the every day press.

The unrelenting despair displayed in this exhibition, many with no aesthetic appeal at all, induces a feeling of desensitivity.

Eventually, in affluent middle class Australia, with scenes of utter wretchedness and suffering, in a variety of countries and locations,  we find ourselves asking what are we supposed to do.

Judges, wake up from your dark depression  and bring back some light!

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.