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Dean Sewell, born in 1971 grew up in Sydney where he began his career working as a news photographer for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 2005 Sewell was awarded 1st Prize, Spot News Stories category of the World Press Photo Awards for his work on the Tsunami aftermath in Aceh, Indonesia. In 2002 and 2000 Sewell won World Press Photo awards for his work on the Australian Bushfires and East Timor respectively. His series on "The Block" in Aboriginal Redfern and coverage of the Sydney Bushfire Crisis of 2001 were showcased at the prestigious Visa Pour L'Image Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, France. In 2001 Sewell co-founded the Australian Photographic Collective 'Oculi'. Annually from 2000-2005 Sewell's work was screened at "Reportage"- Australia's Leading Festival of Photojournalism. Sewell was awarded Australian Press Photographer of the Year in 1998 and 1994. In 1999 he covered the lead-up to the East Timor elections and its violent aftermath. In 1996 Sewell was based in Moscow where he covered the Russian federal elections, the Chechen war and other social issues. Sewell's work is regularly exhibited in leading Australian and International Galleries and his works are held in private collections. In 2005 and 2008, Sewell was awarded an Artist Residency by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in the remote historical gold-mining village of Hill End in NSW, Australia.
Professional Highlights
2006 1st Place in the 'Australia's Top Photographers ATP06', 'Photojournalism' category
2005 Awarded 1st Place – Spot News Stories Category – World Press Photo Awards
for coverage of the Tsunami Aftermath in Aceh.
2002 3rd Place – Nature and the Environment, Stories – World Press Photo Awards for coverage of Sydney's Black Christmas Bushfires.
2001 Founding member of Oculi Photos
2000 2nd Place – People in the News – Stories, World Press Photo Awards for coverage of East Timor.
1998 Nikon Australian Press Photographer of the Year
1996-1997 Based in Moscow covering the Chechen War, Russian Federal Elections and social issues throughout the former Soviet Union
1989-2001 Sydney Morning Herald Photographer
2007 'Finding Our Way to the End', Hill End Art Gallery, Hill End NSW
2006 'Finding Our Way to the End', Bathurst Regional Art Gallery
2005 'Dagwood Dogs & Dust' – Country Shows series, Dubbo Regional Gallery
2007 'Sydney Now – New Australian Photojournalism', Museum of Sydney
2007 'Ingenuity' Photography and Engineering 1846-2006 Temporary Exhibitions Gallery, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal, Centre For Fine Arts, Bozar, Brussels
2007 'Homes In The Sky – Apartment Living in Sydney', Museum of Sydney
2007 'Engaging Visions Project – Your Place in Fine Art', St George, Queensland
2007 'Art and About', Hyde Park, Sydney
2006 'Exhibition of Protest' with 'Terra Kurnellious' a projection installation On site event, Kurnell Sand Dunes
2005 'Random' Oculi exhibition, Customs House, Sydney
2005 'Art & About', Hyde Park Sydney with 'Hillsdale'
2005 'Five Vignettes', Blender Gallery, Sydney
2005 'Disobedience' – an International response to the brutal excesses of economic globalisation and social injustices, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Paddington, Sydney
2005 'Tsunami: An exhibition by Australian Photojournalists'' Mori Gallery, Sydney and The Australian National University (ANU), Canberra
2004 'Art & About – Sydney Life' Hyde Park, Sydney with 'Pool Shark'
2004 'Barking Up The Wrong Tree – a response to the Styx Valley, Tasmania' Artspace, Melbourne, Australia
2003 'Art and About', Hyde Park, Sydney with 'Blue Tongue'
2003 'Reportage' – Australia's leading Photojournalism Festival with 'Country Shows'
2002 'Sydney's Black Christmas Bushfires', Visa Pour l'Image, Perpignan, France.
2002 'Representing the Real- Documentary Photography 2002' with 'The Block' A Collaborative exhibition between Stills Gallery and the Sir Herman Black Gallery, Sydney
2002 'Witness – Australian Photojournalism', Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) with Sydney's 'Black Christmas' Bushfires
2002 'Sydney or the Bush', Urban and Rural landscapes at "New Contemporaries Gallery" – Queen Victoria Building, Sydney.
2001 'Cave Clan', Australian Centre For Contemporary Photography (CCP), Melbourne and Stills Gallery, Sydney, Australia.
2001 'Reportage' with 'Cave Clan'
2000 'The Block' – Exhibited at Visa Pour L'Image, Perpignan, France.
2000 'Reportage' – Australia's leading Photojournalism Festival with 'The Block'
1999 'Reportage' – Australia's leading Photojournalism Festival with 'East Timor'
'Sydney Now – New Australian Photojournalism', Museum of Sydney 2007
Sydney Morning Herald's 'The Big Picture – Diary of a Nation' Celebrates 175 years of breaking news with some of Sydney Morning Herald's best writers photographers and artists, 2005
'Finding Our Way to The End' documents the remote gold mining town of Hill End and its people by Tamara Dean and Dean Sewell 2005
'Ingenuity' Photography and Engineering 1846-2006
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 2007
'Griffith Review 16 – Unintended Consequences' ABC Books. Photographs of 'The Block' Series
'World Press Photo Yearbook 2005' Thames & Hudson
'Off The Rails – The Pauline Hanson Trip' with Margo Kingston, Allen & Unwin 1999
A Selection of Dean's past work