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Sydney: ANZAC Day (2013)

The guns are silent.

In Australia and New Zealand, ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance to mark the 1915 landing at dawn of ANZAC troops at Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey in World War 1 (WW1). The Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) saw their first WW1 military action in Gallipoli as part of an Allied expeditionary force whose aim was to free passage for allied shipping through the Dardanelles, a narrow strait connecting the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and onwards to Constantinople (now Istanbul). Instead, months of heavy fighting became a stalemate with major losses on both sides.

The importance of this date for both countries has ensured that ANZAC Day takes place annually on the 25th of April. In the present, ANZAC Day is a day to remember Australians and New Zealanders who have represented and served their countries in combat and peacekeeping efforts around the world.

Most veterans from the two great world wars of the 20th-century are gone, and soon, they’ll all fade away; the last surviving Australian participant at Gallipoli died in 2002. If ANZAC day has become an excuse for consumption and frivolity, the historical context for present-day commemoration is in danger of becoming lost. Michael Brissenden wrote for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation :

… It’s clear now that Anzac Day has grown to become our most important commemorative day. But is that in itself enough? Should it also spark more of a national conversation? And shouldn’t we at least try and invest the day with what historians like Clare Wright call “historical authenticity”? Along with the mass patriotic sentiment, the huge crowds and even the football grudge matches the day now inspires, some are still searching for more.

The photographs below reflect a small cross-section of people and their memories. By chance, I meet with Ken Curran, Australian World War 2 war-veteran and member of the Order of Australia; I write about him here.

I made all of the photos below on ANZAC Day (25 April) 2013 in the Sydney CBD with a Canon EOS450D/Rebel XSi. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-3gp.

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Sydney: sunsets from west and east

It can be a little unusual to view a sunset from both west and east.

From the west looking east, the sun is behind the viewer, and the setting sun illuminates everything in front of the viewer; that’s a way to describe “front illumination.” From the east looking west, the sun is in front of the viewer, and anything in between the sun and the viewer will appear (mostly) in silhouette; this is an example of “back illumination”.

That’s all very wordy to be sure, but I have above photos of two sunsets in Sydney, one sunset seen from the west and another sunset seen from the east.

In the first case, I boarded the Parramatta River ferry and headed east towards the City as the sun set behind us on the boat. In the second case, I wandered over to Dover Heights in the eastern suburbs to watch the sunset directly in front of me.

In both cases, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is the centrepiece for the setting sun.

Addendum: this photographic experiment became a complete success two weeks after the first photo I made on 14 April …

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Toronto: finding religion in the Hockey Hall of Fame

The Hockey Hall of Fame is the “Cathedral of Hockey”, a place where fans and followers pay their respects to the “Holy Grail”, one of the most beautiful and storied trophies in North American professional sports – the Stanley Cup.

Since 1993, the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) has resided in an old Bank of Montreal building at the northwest corner of Front Street and Yonge Street in downtown Toronto, Canada. To the uninitiated observer, it might be easy to dismiss the Hall of Fame as no more than a bunch of keepsakes collecting dust in an old building.

The HHOF is more, so much more.

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My Berlin: Shalekhet (Fallen Leaves), Jewish Museum

Above: Photo, 23 Jun 2025 (X70).

The Jüdisches Museum (Jewish Museum) in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district is one of the most visited museums in the German capital. Millions from around the world have visited the museum since its opening in late-2001. With the unique architectural vision and building design by Daniel Libeskind, the museum does not set aside the history of the Jewish community within Germany as being separate from the history of the country as a whole. Instead, there is conscious effort by Libeskind and the Museum to have visitors consider how the historical, cultural, art, literature, music, intellectual, scientific, and economic contributions from the Jewish community are tied inextricably with the history of Germany over the span of two millennia. These very issues and questions are now also driving discussions about the present state and evolution of the Turkish and other expatriate communities within Germany.

One sculpture in the museum is both poignant and disturbing.

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Royal Easter Show, Olympic Park, Sydney, Australia

Sydney: Royal Easter Show, 190th edition (2013)

Friends here in Sydney asked if I wanted to go to the Sydney Royal Easter Show, one of the largest agricultural exhibitions and one of the largest annual events in Australia. As memories surfaced of years past spending warm days and cool evenings at the late-summer’s Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver, Canada, I replied with a big “yes”!

The Sydney Royal Easter Show celebrates the 190th edition in 2013. The show began in 1823 at Parramatta Park and sponsored as a meeting of then Agricultural Society of New South Wales, now the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales. To help support the struggling population in what was then the agricultural centre of the New South Wales colony, the main intent was to find ways to improve farming methods for both animals and crops.

Now, at the site of Sydney Olympic Park, the Royal Easter Show has many visitors of all ages and sizes; numerous animals (prize-winners, too) from bovines to canines and equines to porcines; carnival rides and amusement games; and the smells and tastes of “food at the fair”.

It’s an entertaining way to spend a warm and sunny early-autumn afternoon. The 2013 edition of the exhibition runs from 21 March to 3 April inclusive.

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