World-famous news photographer to present Nortel/Canadian Studies keynote address

Jun 25, 2003

One of the world's famous news photographers, Peter Bregg, will present the fourth annual Nortel Networks/Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies Keynote Address at the University of Wollongong tomorrow (Friday 27 June).

The event is being offered free to the public courtesy of Nortel Networks and Mr J.B. Clarke, Managing Director of Nortel's Australian Research and Development Programs.

Mr Bregg's slide presentation and discussion will chronicle the 60 countries he has visited in the course of his 35-year career from his times with The Canadian Press in Ottawa, to his work with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, to his appointment with the Associated Press in Boston, London, New York and Washington.

For the past 14 years, he has been Chief Photographer at Maclean's, Canada's most important weekly news magazine.

Peter Bregg began his photographic career with Canadian Press in Ottawa in 1967 at the age of 19 where he covered Parliament Hill. He went on to work for the Associated Press in 1974 in Boston, Washington, New York and London, UK. He also served as official photographer to Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1984-85.

His assignments have included seven Olympics, Stanley Cups, World Series, Presidential trips, Vietnam in 1973, the Iran hostage crisis in 1979-80 and the imposition of marshal law on the Solidarity movement in Poland in1981. He was also in New York to cover the September 11 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre.

He is a member of the Loyalist College Photojournalism Advisory Board. He is also a member of the photo collective Photosensitive (www.Photosensitive.com) since its founding 13 years ago.

Photosensitive was formed to undertake photo projects helping charitable associations such as CARE Canada in 2002 with a week's coverage of AIDS in Zambia. The resulting photos have been travelling as an exhibition since its launch.

Peter Bregg has won numerous awards including A World Press Photo award, NPPA Regional Photographer of the year, Canadian Press Photo of the Year, Eastern Canada News photographers Association Awards, a Canadian National Newspaper Award and White House News Photographers' Association Awards.

He has also been arrested or detained on some occasions in the course of his long career including the Quebec independence movement protests in 1969 and while covering the American embassy staff who were seized by students in Iran in 1979 where he was arrested, blindfolded and detained. He was expelled but subsequently returned to cover the story for a full year.

Many of Mr Bregg's photos from throughout the Trudeau era will be featured in the exhibition Trudeau: Photos by Peter Bregg, which will be on display at Kings Hall, Old Parliament House, Canberra, from 25 June-28 September. His Wollongong talk will be his only other major appearance while in Australia.

The keynote address will coincide with the running of the Performing the Nations conference, being held on 27-28 June, at the University of Wollongong.

Hosted by the Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies, together with the Identities & Cultural Difference Research Group, the conference will feature as keynote presenters:

* Professor Richard Cavell, University of British Columbia,"Performing the Nation in Theory: Frye and McLuhan"

* Professor Peter Dickinson, Simon Fraser University,"Canadian Queerness in an Inter-National Frame"

One of the conference organisers, Associate Professor Gerry Turcotte, said that despite claims that we are at 'the end of history' in a global or post-national era, the idea of nation is not fading.

"To the contrary, nation states increasingly endorse or commission both small and large-scale activities that 'perform' the nation for the world. Hence, we are witness to spectacles such as the Olympic or the Commonwealth Games, major art exhibitions and literary prizes. Not surprisingly, in the face of such proclamations of national cohesion, numerous groups and individuals have enacted oppositional challenges to homogenising mythologies: the Writers Thru Race conference in Canada, or a performance in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

"This project will explore such national performances as both majority and minority cultural activities in Canada and Australia. It will be run as a small-scale research forum and the papers that will be collected for publication," Professor Turcotte said.

Meanwhile, Five Islands Press will launch a new collection of poetry, "Hauntings" written by Professor Turcotte, at the lunch time conference break on June 27. Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Margaret Sheil will welcome guests to the poetry collection launch.

Media please note: There will be a VIP reception for Mr Bregg at 6pm tomorrow (Friday 27 June) in Food Re-Thought Restaurant (Bldg 67) at the University of Wollongong. The keynote address will be presented by Mr Bregg in Room 104 of Building 67, at 7.30 tomorrow evening. Illawarra Mercury Editor, Mr Mitchell Murphy, will introduce Mr Bregg before the address is presented.

Further information: Contact Associate Professor Gerry Turcotte, Head, School of English Literatures, Philosophy and Languages, and Director, Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies, on (02) 4221 4140 or Marly Ohlsson, Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies, on (02) 4221 3737.

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128