Samuel Webster is a young freelance writer and photographer living in Sydney, Australia.

He spends his days musing upon the absurdity of human relationships,
and his nights contemplating the impact of a poorly whistled tune on the cascading
cityscape. When he is not writing, he takes photos of people, collecting expressions in
mason jars to reuse inappropriately at family occasions.

He is currently working on his first novel and studying his Masters in Creative Writing.

In 2006, he won the National Youth Week Senior Industry Award for a short story which competition judge Michael Short (Executive Editor, The Age) called “a sophisticated and sensitive melange of surrealism, emotion and innocence” and in 2007, he submitted Silencing the Dictator, a suite of poetry about the political interaction between Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, as part of his Honours Thesis at the University of Technology, Sydney.

In addition to freelancing for a number of publications, Sam is part of the editorial team for the new ‘smart gloss’ online magazine, Trespass (a publishing venture by Niche Creative Media, launched in December 2008). Trespass describes itself as “a place where refinement of thought and sophistication of expression is encouraged” and which persuades readers to “wade out of the mindless, boring and manipulated editorial you are unwittingly swamped in, and make education an everyday thing.”

As a semi-professional photographer and musician, Sam’s creative output has focussed mostly upon the crossover areas between the creative arts, including such areas as visual poetry and music reviews. In this capacity, he has instructed undergraduate students at the University of Technology, Sydney in the area of cultural analysis, an academic strand which borrows heavily from anthropology, social sciences and the humanities.

Since he began posting his photography online, Sam’s portfolio has been viewed over 70,000 times, with his most popular photos reaching over 10,000 views each.  His photographic work was publically exhibited in a 2006 cafe installation entitled ‘RGB’, and has received public acclaim on photographic blogs worldwide, including being featured twice on the photographic lighting website Strobist, which receives one and a half million views per month. In 2007, he was chosen as one of five finalists for the National Youth Week photography prize. As a result of their popularity, many of his images have also been featured on the main page of the web photo giant Flickr, which boasts 2000 new photos uploaded per minute. For the past five years, Sam has worked on multiple video projects for Tiny Green Gorilla Productions, taking on various roles ranging from Production Assistant to Event Director.

As a musician, Sam has performed in many musical ensembles including jazz quintet Illegal Harmonies, Emma Davis’ acoustic trio and OnFire Big Band. With OnFire, he has performed with internationally renowned jazz musician James Morrison at sold out venues nationwide. He also took on the role of co-producer and engineer for Unfinished Business and Old School, released by OnFire in 2004 and 2008 respectively. Additionally, he has worked as an assistant to recording engineer and professional drummer John Morrison on projects ranging from North Sydney Boys High School to BMW.

His music writing has been published in Sydney street press and online (3D World, MusicWeb International, Channel [V] Vibewire.net and Trespass magazine). Sam is forever absorbed in new music, beginning with the packages of eight to ten new releases which arrive regularly from MusicWeb International’s record archive. During the past year, he has reviewed musicians such as Victoria Tolstoy, Miles Davis, Katie Noonan, Kurt Elling, Pacific Opera, The Australian Chamber Orchestra and The Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he was also one of the featured reviewers in Vibewire’s coverage of the 2008 Sydney Writers’ Festival, including a forum with Australian Comedienne Judith Lucy.