The Second Best Job in the World: The Extraordinary Adventures of an ABC Cameraman

Description

For as long as he could remember, Julian Mather wanted to be a photojournalist. Then he got side-tracked. And while military sniper seemed like a good idea at the time, he found the telescopic sights of his rifle were starting to look more and more like a movie camera, and so he fell in love with film-making. It wasn't quite photojournalism but it was better than killing people. Shooting people with a camera was more, well, fun. And of course, life as an ABC TV cameraman was less life-threatening, wasn't it? From filming explosions in Los Alamos, to harrowing car journeys in Kosovo, from performing magic tricks for kids to hanging from helicopters with his camera on his shoulder, Julian goes from one perilous adventure to another. And then there's the people he meets along the way: care workers and strippers, refugees and nuclear scientists, and the many strange and wonderful character he works with. It's a bloody great job, even if it is the second best job in the world.

Julian Mather is a cameraman on Australian Story and has also worked on Four Corners, Foreign Correspondent and many more ABC programs. He wrote a chapter of Australian Story: Off the Record (ABC Books 2007) and revealed himself as a storyteller of some flair and talent.He lives in Brisbane.