Ken Hall said that Damien was “a good cameraman – but there were lots of good cameramen on both sides of WWII. Damien’s great gift was knowing what to shoot and to look for the human interest angle. His other great natural gift was an uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time. A cameraman cannot write the story after the event, as war correspondents could and invariably did. The cameraman has to be there when it happens”.

Parer was one of Australia’s best-known combat cameramen. As official movie photographer for the AIF, he decided early to film from as close to the action as possible. He was on board HMAS Sydney after it sank the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni, and covered battlefield action in Greece, Syria and the Western Desert.

Parer and assistant filming on the Kokoda track

By mid-1942 Parer was in New Guinea, where he filmed some of his most famous sequences. His documentary Kokoda Front Line won an Oscar. He died on a Pacific island, shot walking backwards as he filmed a group of marines advancing under fire.

Parer photographed by Max Dupin in the 1930’s

“Kokoda Front Line!” was a full-length edition of the Australian newsreel, Cinesound Review, produced by the Australian News & Information Bureau and Cinesound Productions Limited in 1942, about the Kokoda Track campaign. It was one of four winners of the 15th Academy Awards for best documentary, and the first Australian film to win an Oscar. It was filmed by the Australian war photographer Damien Parer and directed by Ken G. Hall.

Damien Parer is often cited as one of Australia’s early Academy Award winners, however the award was made to the director, Ken G. Hall.

The book by Niall Brennan tells the story of the man for whom the battle was only secondary to telling a story. Well written and easy to read it gives you an excellent insight into the man and his technical and innovative insight.

I picked the book up for AU$2.00 second hand and it was well worth it. I wouldn’t, however, pay full price for it.

★★★