A Walkley Award winning photojournalist and Nikon Ambassador, David Dare Parker has photographed for many national and international magazines throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australasia. Publications include LeMonde, Australian Geographic, The Bulletin, The New York Times, The Guardian and Time Australia. He is featured in the Australian War Memorial book ‘Contact’ – Australian War Photographers and WAR: Degree South.
Projects include coverage of East Timor’s struggle to gain independence and Indonesia’s first steps towards democracy. In January 2002 he was asked to co-ordinate a safety awareness course for Afghan Journalists in Peshawar, Pakistan for the International Federation of Journalists. In 2003 he was the Official War Photographer for the Australian War Memorial during Operation Falconer in the Middle East. Recent work includes coverage of the Rohingya humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh.
During 2004 he was appointed journalist in residence at Murdoch University and lectured on photography at Central TAFE in Perth, Western Australia. He has also worked extensively in film, television and the performing arts. He has run photography workshops for Head On Photo Festival, FORM, Country Arts WA and Nikon Australia.
As a film industry production stills photographer, credits include 3 Acts of Murder, Cloudstreet, Underbelly Razor, Brothers in Arms – Bikie Wars, Redfern Now, An Accidental Soldier, Love Child 2, Red Dog: True Blue, Paper Planes, Jasper Jones, Three Summers, Breath, Whiteley, Dirt Music, H is for Happiness, Go Karts & Mystery Road Series Two.
He is one of the original co-founders of Reportage, was a Director of FotoFreo Photographic Festival and a Walkley Advisory Board Member. He is a member of the °SOUTH Photo Co-operative and the SMPSP: The Society of Motion Picture Stills Photographers.
After 16 - 20 days waiting on the Myanmar border, Rohingya refugees cross the Naf River into Bangladesh using eight makeshift rafts made out of bamboo and plastic palm oil containers.
“The first responsibility of the photojournalist is to reveal what is happening in front of you truthfully and get it seen by as many people as possible — as soon as possible. You want the viewer to feel as if they were standing beside you when you captured the image. You want to inform them, move them and potentially have some influence over public opinion in order to initiate change for the better… in an ideal world.”
— David Dare Parker
Red-shirt anti-government protesters are detained by Thai soldiers inside their camp in Bangkok during military crackdown to end the Red-shirt protests.
Newly arrived Rohingya refugees. Often described as the "world's most persecuted minority", the Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group from the Rakhine State in Myanmar. In October 2016, a military crackdown in the wake of a deadly attack on an army post sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh.
A Nikon was my first camera, and most likely, my last. Nikon has never let me down. On top of that, NIKKOR glass is second to none.
Tom Russell as Young Fish Lamb. Cloudstreet.
Stan Yarramunua (as Jimmy 2), Mystery Road 2
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