CURRENT ISSUE: Published in: l’agenda Magazine – Your Cultural Guide with a French Twist – Middle Eastern Publication – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, UAE.
Rising talent Cameron Herweynen recently returned from the Indigenous Garma Festival on the Gove Peninsula. Although it’s his third year running at the North East Arnhem Land event, it never ceases to amaze. And neither do his captivating images.
OPENING IMAGE: This boy was one of the feathered dancers in the daily afternoon bunggul dance ceremony. In the previous shot I took, he was much less serious, playfully sticking out his tongue. All the other children were jumping around me excitedly shouting, “you picture me, you picture me!”
When Cameron Herweynen was a kid, his art teacher would joke about him becoming a famous photographer one day, and that she’d be sitting in her retirement home flicking through his photos in magazines. Impressed by the shots he took on his dad’s old Minolta, she encouraged him to borrow an automatic Nikon SLR for a trip to Poland – a loan which, Cameron says, ignited his passion for photography and “changed everything.”
It was a post-school trip to war-ravaged Cambodia and his first encounter with the third world that gave Cameron the inspiration to progress from architecture photography to portraiture and social documentary. Through capturing the faces and expressions of his subjects, he discovered how powerful a medium photography can be. Encouraged and enlivened by this potent new way of seeing things, he’s never looked back.
Cameron has since travelled to Read more »
Young children from a Yolngu school perform their own bunggul, telling a story of the birds of the sky to a crowd of onlookers. Their striking face paint designs symbolise bird varieties.
The aboriginal people of Australia are famously private, preferring to keep their time-honored practices to themselves. But occasionally a photographer is privileged with the chance to experience their traditional ways of life firsthand. Cameron Herweynen was one such photographer, allowed to intimately photograph the Yolngu people’s Garma Festival after winning the World Nomads Award for his photography. Since then, Cameron has attended the event annually as part of the effort of the Yothu Yindi Foundation, which works to preserve the Yolngu’s customs. Located in Gulkula, on the Gove Peninsular in far northeastern Arnhem Land, NT Australia, Garma is a vast celebration of the Yolngu people, a culture that is among the oldest on earth, with a history stretching back more than 40,000 years. The Garma Festival Read more »
Cameron Herweynen – photographer Specialising in Travel Photography and Social Documentary Photography.
Humanity, life and creation. www.cameronherweynen.com
CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW HIGHLIGHTS OF MY PUBLISHED WORK
WHERE: Gulkula, North East Arnhem Land, NT Australia. WHAT: Garma Festival. PHOTOGRAPHY: Cameron Herweynen.
Check out my PUBLISHED WORK
Australia’s leading cultural exchange event, the 11th Garma Festival, took places in Arnhem Land this year on 7-11 August. A celebration of Yolngu – among the oldest living cultures on earth at more than 40,000 years – the Garma is held with the aim of sharing this knowledge and culture. Read more »
A job or a duty – interview with Cameron Herweynen - Published in Australia’s CAPTURE Magazine
CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW FULL ARTICLE
For a few days in February, the world’s attention was focused on Australia as our worst-ever bushfires disaster unfolded, claiming hundreds of lives in Victoria. Simon Mossman speaks to several photographers who documented the devastation.
There’s no denying that often the most powerful images are produced in the most shocking of circumstances. The photographers, in particular had to get closer than most to the devastation and destruction if they were to accurately document the event. For some it was the job, for others, a calling of sorts. For all though it was a challenging and no doubt barrowing experience, no matter how professional they are.
Travel and social documentary photographer Cameron Herweynen felt a different sense of purpose in covering the disaster after learning that two old school friends perished in the blaze that ripped through the Kinglake region, northeast of Melbourne. Another friend living in nearby St Andrews stayed on to defend his home but ultimately survived.
“I guess I felt compelled to Read more »
Hey! Welcome to my new photography site and blog, which I hope will engage you! I’ll be regularly adding new material, so please check back frequently!
The purpose of www.cameronherweynen.com is to showcase my very best travel and documentary photography, with highlights of my published work. I hope this site will give you a greater appreciation for our world as together we explore our humanity, and the beauty in creation, through my photography and video.
This blog is an image-focused space where I can share my latest photos, with news and info of current projects to compliment my site. I may do some retrospective stuff to fill you in on the past, and as I travel, will be sure to put my experiences into words… just have to see where it take us.
I designed the site, striving to create a powerful platform where I can share my photography. Going for a clean minimal design, with large images and easy navigation. Moving away from Flash and into the exciting world of WordPress and HTML, complete with an integrated archive, where you can search through all my images.
If you have any suggestions or criticisms or questions, please send me an email, I’d love to hear from you.
Email: info@cameronherweynen.com
Thanks for looking! Have fun!
Cameron Herweynen photographer Specialising in Travel Photography and Social Documentary Photography.
Humanity, life and creation. www.cameronherweynen.com
Coconut photo captured on Piñones Beach, in San Juan, Puerto Rico (whilst on assignment for Morning Calm magazine)
