TITLE: “Snow - Torres Strait Elder Saila ‘Snow’ Savage”

I met “Snow” whilst on assignment for Australian Geographic at the ‘Winds of Zenadth’ cultural festival on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait Australia last September. Uncle Saila ‘Snow’ Savage is a traditional Kaurareg Elder - essentially Torres Strait 'Royalty' - and the partner to Betty Mabo, daughter of the Murray Island activist legend Eddie Mabo. “Snow” - as the locals fondly call him - is an utterly charming character and great visual subject matter.
(Australi's Torres Strait is in the remote far north area of the continent bordering Papua New Guinea.)

AUTHOR: Brian Cassey (Australia)

Long based in Australia's northern tropical city of Cairns, Brian was born in London UK almost with a camera in his hand. (First camera a VP Twin 127 Bakelite camera - 2/6d at Woolworths)

Spent his formative and 'interesting' teenage years playing and photographing football. Pictures appeared regularly in London's metro and suburban press before Brian moved to Australia.

Since making Cairns home a few decades ago Brian has been freelancing for National and International media including AG/Australia and Bauer Media, News Ltd, Fairfax and 'The Wires'.

Brian covered - amongst many other news events - tsunamis in Asia (Banda Aceh Indonesia, Phuket and Khoa Lak Thailand, Myanmar 2004/5) and the Pacific (Sissano Papua New Guinea 1998), the evacuation of refugees from East Timor (1999), George Speights coup in Fiji and the World Economic Forum riots in Melbourne (2000), the victims of the 2002 Bali terrorist bombs and the devastation wrought in Australia by category 5 cyclone's Larry (2006) and Yasi (2011).

His work in Australian indigenous communities has been recognised with numerous awards including Walkley nomination.

A Nikon Walkley Award winner in 2005, 2011and 2016, a finalist in the 2013 “Nikon Walkley Australian Press Photographer of the Year Award” , he also won the “Kodak/adidas Australian Sports Photo of the Year" in 1985 and has achieved recognition in the US National Press Photographers Awards “NPPA Best of Photojournalism” (Best Portrait 2012), the Head On Portrait Prize (2nd place winner 2013), the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize (runner up 2011), the Rothmans Press Photo Awards, the Hurley Press Photo Awards, The Bowness Photography Prize, the Gordon Parkes photo awards and the US Kellicut International (winner and third place 2012).

Brian is also a member of the photojournalist collective 'fotostrada' (www.fotostrada.com) and the collective IG feeds @everydayaustralia and the Global @everydayclimatechange .