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Penguin Bloom “ The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family” opens at Kapunda Community Gallery on Sunday June 3 and runs to July 22.
The photographs are from the international best-selling book of the same name, and feature a magpie named Penguin – the odd little bird who saved a family. The Bloom family, from NSW, came to know Penguin when one of Cameron's sons Noah found her lying on the grass after being blown out of her nest. She was lucky to survive the 20 metre fall. Without care she would have surely died.
The Blooms took Penguin into their home, and what followed was an unexpected and beautiful connection between a family and this sweet bird. Penguin arrived at a crisis point in the Bloom household following a terrible accident – a fall that shattered the spine of Cameron's wife Sam and left her paralysed and wheelchair bound.
Cameron Bloom said “Penguin brought happiness to the family on so many levels and became a lovely soul mate for Sam and helped us to heal. Photographing Penguin taught me so much about nature and how important it is to our own wellbeing.”
Samantha was a surfer, adventure traveller and a nurse before the accident. She now works with numerous spinal cord injury charities and is a popular public speaker.
Cameron began his career as a surf photographer on Sydney's Northern Beaches. His work has been featured in many international publications. Penguin Bloom won the 2017 Australian illustrated book of the year.
10% of royalties from the book sales in Australia are donated to Spinal Cure Australia.
Australian screenwriter Shaun Grant has adapted the book, which will become a Hollywood movie produced by Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea and Naomi Watts, who will also be starring as Sam. The film is planned for production in 2018.
An exhibition showing at the same time is “ Paintings by the Kapunda Monday Art Group”.
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