When nature photographer Sharon Jones embarked on an Arctic expedition, she never planned to visit Vigur Island in Iceland's remote Westfjords. However, an unexpected change in itinerary led to a career-defining moment when she captured an award-winning photograph of an Atlantic puffin just moments after stepping off the boat.
"We were supposed to go to Greenland, but there was too much ice, so we couldn't get there and ended up spending a little extra time in Iceland instead," Jones explained. "One of the additional places we visited was a small island called Vigur Island, which is way up in northern Iceland. That's where I photographed the puffins."
Jones has won the environmental category in Western Australia's annual Ilford Orloff Awards for her puffin photograph and other nature images. Her winning photograph captures an Atlantic puffin with its beak full of fish, a moment that Jones describes as pure luck.
"That was just a lucky shot," she said. "We had literally just gotten off the ferry onto the island and were waiting around this particular rock for the rest of our group. I turned around and this puffin flew in right next to me, sitting there with a beak full of fish. He sat there for about a minute and then took off again."
The third annual Ilford Orloff Awards, named after renowned interwar photographer Izzy Orloff, were presented last week, and work from all finalists is now displayed across two floors of the State Library in Northbridge. The awards celebrate all forms of professional photography and serve as a showcase for the work of Western Australia-based professional photographers.
Johannes Reinhart was named Ilford WA Professional Photographer of the Year and Fine Art Photographer of the Year, representing the highest honors in the competition.
For commercial photographer Mark Brierley, president of Pro-Photography WA, the awards provide not just recognition but an opportunity for community building in a profession where photographers typically work alone.
"Pro-Photography WA has been around since 2022. Our members were former members of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography, which went into liquidation in 2019," Brierley said. "We're over here in the west, we're quite isolated. We're a very tight-knit community. A few of us got together and said, 'Look, we still need something here in WA.'"
Since the group's formation, it has attracted approximately 80 members and established the awards as an annual event. "It's nice to get together with people who are like-minded, and you realize you're not alone. That's one of the greatest things," Brierley said. "You come away from it with a renewed sense of passion for the industry."
Brierley, a commercial photographer, entered four images in this year's competition, three of which are architectural photographs, a particular passion of his. His portfolio includes an image of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, which he entered in the commercial photography category.
However, it's his fourth image that proves most striking – a mysterious white-on-white photograph of medical equipment that resembles an abstract sculpture. The image shows a dentist's X-ray machine and won recognition in the competition.
"That photo was for a brand-new dental practice in Rockingham," he explained. "The brief was to capture the entire practice, photograph the rooms, and show off the equipment. When I saw the X-ray machine positioned on the wall, packed away, it just created this beautiful abstract look. There was soft light coming through the window, which created a little bit of shadow. I shot it knowing that with the light, it could be used for a competition shot because it has that artistic factor. The shot I delivered to the client was a little more realistic."
While Jones usually has little opportunity to carefully compose her shots due to the nature of wildlife photography, another of her striking images – a red-footed booby on Christmas Island carrying a branch in its mouth – required considerable patience to capture.
Jones's work takes her to Christmas Island several times a year, allowing her to spend free time photographing the island's wildlife. "That was just an early morning before work. The boobies were all nesting in quite dense rainforest in that area," she said. "There's a road that runs through, and because it's clearer, they tend to come down there to collect nesting material. So I was standing in the middle of the road – luckily not a very busy road – just waiting for these birds to come down, hoping that one would come down at about head height so I could get that really engaging head-on look. Luckily enough, I did."
Another of Jones's featured works shows a common greenshank wading through the shallows of the Mandurah Estuary in pre-dawn light, demonstrating her skill in capturing local Western Australian wildlife as well as international subjects.
For the State Library, which partners with the awards, the event represents part of the institution's ongoing project to document Western Australian history through contemporary photography.
"The State Library has been collecting photographs for about 150 years," said David Craddock, manager of the library's engagement and creative programs team. "Some of the state's oldest photographs are part of our collection. The reason we're supporting the Ilford Orloff Awards and working with Pro-Photography WA is that it's a connection with contemporary photography. We're really interested in the stories that contemporary new WA photographers are telling, and in some cases, we acquire these photos because they're a beautiful snapshot of what's happening in WA right now."
Izzy Orloff, the photographer for whom the awards are named, captured more than 1,000 images of everyday life and work in Perth and Fremantle between the world wars, leaving an invaluable historical record for the State Library. One of his notable works, titled "Fun at the beach," was taken around 1928 and exemplifies his documentation of daily life in Western Australia.
"His collection is one of the treasures of the State Library's heritage collection," Craddock said. "It's a beautiful time capsule of the 1920s."
In keeping with this historical documentation mission, the library sponsored a new category in the awards last year called the narrative award, which recognizes images that record contemporary life in Western Australia.
"It must be a West Australian subject shot in Western Australia by a West Australian photographer," Craddock explained. "That's really an effort to distill what our collection is about. We're interested in West Australian stories."
This year's winner of the narrative award was Richard Goodwin, with an image titled "The Poppy Sisterhood." The photograph depicts a craft group from directly above, showing members knitting around a large round table in a coffee shop in the Swan Valley. The group originally began by knitting poppies for Anzac Day and now creates knitted items for breast cancer patients.
"It's beautiful, it's literally a fly-on-the-wall photo – it very much sums up the storytelling that we're trying to capture," Craddock said.
The exhibition features finalists and winners' photographs across all categories and will remain on display at the State Library until February 8, 2026. The comprehensive showcase demonstrates the diversity and quality of professional photography being produced in Western Australia, from environmental and wildlife photography to commercial and fine art work, all while contributing to the ongoing documentation of the state's contemporary culture and history.
