Better of WA skilled images on present at State Library

When she set out on a visit to the Arctic, nature photographer Sharon Jones hadn’t supposed to go to Vigur Island in Iceland’s Westfjords.

But as she stepped off the boat onto the island, she snapped an award-winning picture of an Atlantic puffin.

“We were meant to go to Greenland, but there was too much ice, we couldn’t get there and ended up spending a little bit of extra time in Iceland instead,” Jones stated.

“One of the extra places that we went to was a little place called Vigur Island, which is way up in the north of Iceland. And that’s where I got the puffins.”

Jones has received the environmental class in Western Australia’s annual Ilford Orloff Awards for her {photograph} of the puffin and different photos.

Her profitable entries are a mix of being in the proper place on the proper time and having a eager eye for a putting picture.

“That was just a lucky shot,” she stated of the puffin.

“We’d literally just got off the ferry on to the island, and were hanging around this particular rock, waiting for the rest of the group, and I turned around and this puffin flew in, right next to me, sitting there, beak full of fish.

“He sat there for a couple of minute after which took off once more.”

Celebrating WA’s photographers

The third annual Ilford Orloff Awards, named for famed interwar photographer Izzy Orloff, have been awarded final week and work from all of the finalists is now on show throughout two flooring of the State Library in Northbridge.

Celebrating every kind {of professional} images, the awards are a showcase for the work of WA-based skilled photographers.

For commercial photographer Mark Brierley, president of Pro-Photography WA, the awards are a chance not just for recognition, but to come together as a community in a profession where days are spent working solo.

“[Pro-photography WA] has been round since 2022; our members have been previous members of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography, which went into liquidation in 2019,” he stated.

“And so a few of us got together and said, ‘Look, we still need something here in WA.'”

From industrial to high-quality artwork

Since the group’s creation, it has attracted about 80 members and made the awards an annual occasion.

“It’s nice to get together with people that are like-minded and you’re not alone, that’s one of the greatest things,” Brierley stated.

Brierley is a industrial photographer and entered 4 photos on this 12 months’s competitors, three of that are architectural photos, a selected ardour of his.

But it is the fourth picture that’s the most putting, a mysterious white-on-white picture of medical gear that just about appears to be like like an summary sculpture.

“That [photo] was for a brand-new dental practice in Rockingham,” he stated.

“The brief was to capture the entire practice, photograph the rooms, show off the equipment in the rooms.

“When I noticed what the picture is, which is an X-ray machine, the way in which it was simply positioned on the wall, packed away, it simply created this stunning summary look to it.

“And there was soft light coming through the window, which created a little bit of shadow.

“I shot it realizing with the sunshine, it may very well be used for a contest shot as a result of it is bought that artwork issue to it.

“The shot I delivered to a client was a little bit more realistic.”

Split-second timing

While Sharon Jones often has little alternative to rigorously compose pictures, one other of her putting photos, a red-footed booby on Christmas Island with a department in its mouth, took lots of persistence to seize.

Jones’s work takes her to Christmas Island a number of instances a 12 months, permitting her to spend her free time on the island taking images.

“And that was just an early morning before work, the boobies were all nesting in quite dense rainforest in that area,” she stated.

“There’s a road that runs through and because it’s kind of a bit clearer, they tend to come down there and collect nesting material.

“So I used to be standing in the midst of the street — fortunately not a really busy street — and simply ready for these birds to return down, and hoping that one would come down at about head top, so I might get that actually partaking head-on look, and fortunately sufficient, I did.”

Telling the tales of WA

For awards partner the State Library, the event is part of the institution’s ongoing project to record West Australian history.

“The State Library has been gathering images for about 150 years,” stated David Craddock, supervisor of the library’s engagement and inventive applications workforce.

“The reason we’re supporting the Ilford Orloff Awards, and working with Pro-Photography WA, is it’s a connection with contemporary photography.

“We’re actually within the tales that up to date new WA photographers are telling, and in some circumstances, we purchase these images as a result of they’re a lovely snapshot of what is taking place in WA proper now.”

Izzy Orloff, who the awards are named after, captured more than 1,000 images of everyday life and work in Perth and Fremantle between the wars, leaving a priceless record for the State Library.

“His assortment is without doubt one of the treasures of the State Library’s heritage assortment,” Mr Craddock stated.

In that spirit, the library sponsored a new category in the awards last year, the narrative award, which acknowledges images that record life in WA.

“It should be a West Australian topic shot in Western Australia by a West Australian photographer,” Mr Craddock stated.

This year’s winner of the narrative award was Richard Goodwin, with an image titled The Poppy Sisterhood.

It depicts a craft group from directly above, with members knitting around a large round table in a coffee shop in the Swan Valley.

The group started by knitting poppies for Anzac Day and now makes knitted gadgets for breast most cancers sufferers.

“It’s stunning, it is actually a fly on the wall photograph … it very a lot sums up the storytelling that we’re making an attempt to seize,” Mr Craddock stated.

The finalists and winners’ images, in all of the classes, are on show on the State Library till February 8, 2026.