This gallery contains images made by a group of ECU photography students, who were studying under renowned Western Australian photographer Kevin Ballantine. The project was undertaken in collaboration with the City of Subiaco, but unfortunately, the artist names for the individual photographs were not recorded in the archive. The producers of this project have made efforts to connect with former ECU students via the university, but have not made contact with anyone involved in the project. We welcome any correspondence regarding the project or these images—please contact us if you have any information or wish to connect.

Michelle Taylor is a Perth/Boorloo-based photographer.

Sonya Sears was a social documentary photographer working in Perth/Boorloo in the late 1980s and 1990s. She was well-known for her work The Containment Series: A Journey Against Time, which she made during her time in an organ transplant program from October 1992 – July 1993. The work documented scenes around Melbourne and Victoria—a "narrative record of my world, from dense forest to dense concrete ... landscapes and cityscapes that rushed passed my gaze; a sense of urgency, a journey against time as my health deteriorated and the hope of a suitable donor seemed increasingly remote". It was exhibited at the Perth Centre for Photography (then called The Photography Gallery of Western Australia) in October/November 1994. Sears later died from cystic fibrosis.

Aaron Webber (b.1989 Balclutha, New Zealand) is a photographer predominantly working in Perth and Western Australia. Much of his work forensically examines the inherent relationship between environment, industry and identity in the place he lives. Webber uses photography to acutely witness and interpret the connection between Australia’s identity and the outdoors—in both leisure and labour. He has a strong interest in the archive and draws on a variety of influences in contemporary and historical media to inform his image-making. Webber has been commissioned by the likes of Adidas, DECIEM, Garbage tv, Genesis Motor, Landgate, Nike, Red Bull, Universal and Warner; and published by The New Order and Vice UK. He has also been shortlisted as a finalist in the International Photography Festival, London (2017), the Palm* Photo Prize (2018, 2020, 2021) and the East Co Photo Agency Emerging Photographer Award (2021).

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Billy Reeves is a Western Australian photographer and visual artist. His photography represents an explorative journey that has propelled a passion for understanding and discovering his surroundings through the charms of the medium. His work Golden Teeth, created in Ukraine in 2015, was exhibited at the 2022 FotoFreo Festival. Transient due to travels for the past decade, Reeves now lives and concentrates on projects in his hometown in Boorloo/Perth. For the past three years, he has been working on an ongoing project titled East/West of the salinity line, exploring the intersection of environmental and cultural landscapes through abstraction and distortion.

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Claudia Caporn is a Western Australian fine art documentary photographer with an interest in rural Australian identity and the relationships between man and land. Her creative practice is informed by her upbringing on her family’s wheat and sheep farm in the wheatbelt town of Quarading, where she experienced both the freedom and harshness of Australia’s vast landscape. Her work explores the vernacular aesthetics and human experiences in rural Australia, as well as examining the contemporary concepts and realities of place, legacy and notions of identity associated with Australian culture. 

She has completed a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in Creative Advertising and Graphic Design, and Photography at Curtin University. In 2021 Claudia completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Photography at Curtin University with First Class Honours, joining the Vice-Chancellor’s List. She has been a finalist in a variety of international awards and exhibited both locally and internationally. 

Claudia is currently working on a series called “Women of the Land”, exploring the role of women in agriculture. The work is supported by the Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund.

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Duncan Wright is a Western Australian photographer, director, artist and founder of West End Workers Studio. He studied under Max Pam and Kevin Ballantine at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia before moving to the Vahland Academy of Fine Arts in Gothenburg, Sweden to finish his degree. While working commercially across a diverse range of clientele, Duncan also has an artistic photographic practice that merges documentary and conceptual approaches to visual storytelling and image-making.

He has worked on assignment for publications such as The Australian, The Guardian and Australian Financial Review, while also shooting campaigns for the Western Australian state government, and musicians and bands Tame Impala, Ta-ku, POND, Methyl Ethel and San Cisco. Duncan has also exhibited in various group exhibitions, including the esteemed 2021 Fremantle Art Centre Print Award in which he was a finalist. He has had two solo exhibitions: Happiness (2021) at the Perth Centre of Photography and A Resonance, which formed part of the Fremantle Biennale 2021 program.

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Emma Pegrum is a journalist, creative editor, photographer and multifaceted producer who works across a variety of editorial, publishing and interdisciplinary artistic projects. Emma has written profiles and features covering the arts, culture and society for titles including The Saturday Paper, T Australia: The New York Times Style Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Vault Magazine and UNION Magazine. Her photographic practice explores contemporary Australian identities, themes of place and nostalgia, and relationship dynamics. She was a finalist in the 2022 National Photographic Portrait Prize, which was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. She has also exhibited in group shows at the Perth Centre for Photography and Pig Melon Gallery.

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