LOCAL photographer Kirsten Graham has picked up an armful of awards at the WA photography awards.
The Palmyra snapper scored the top print handlers’ award for a touching picture of a father-of-the-bride gently hushing a playful child at a wedding, along with six silver awards for other wedding and landscape pics. It was caught at a wedding in March.
“Over the years you learn to anticipate when something could happen,” she says. “When you see those amazing candid photos that get taken, quite often it’s [by] looking in advance and thinking ‘something could go on’ and keeping an eye on them, and the bride, and the groom, and the parents, and everyone else.
“You’re constantly looking at everyone around you to see what opportunities arise, like misbehaving nephews.”
She studied photography during its transition from film to digital and recalls the days when primitive digital cameras cost $15,000 and could only create a photo the size of a postcard. She still tries to make every shot count, just as if she was shooting film—both to snap the perfect moment and to ensure she doesn’t have to trawl through 50 gigabytes.
Based in Mt Hawthorn’s Compose Photography (colleague Rebecca Johansson picked up illustrative photographer of the year and a gold award herself) Ms Graham says weddings make up about 70 per cent of their business.
She says people shouldn’t try too hard to avoid potentially embarrassing passing trends: “You still want to have some idea of when it was taken… you want to show what the world was like in those days, because it’s fun to look back and laugh at what you wore.”
The winning photos will be on display at the Moores Building in Freo from June 22.
by DAVID BELL