IT ALL STARTED WHEN…

HERE’S A STORY ABOUT MY PHOTOGRAPHY

AT the age of nine Renee Nowytarger picked up her Dad’s camera and starting shooting. Anything. Friends, family, streetscapes, the sky. What she saw.

But her keenness to capture the world through a lens was to become much more than a mere hobby. Decades later, she is an accomplished, multi-award winning photojournalist whose outstanding pictures have been taken and seen around the globe.

Renee started off as a cadet at The Manly Daily in 1993 where she learnt to capture local peninsula life shooting pix at court, the sporting field, school, the beach, and from the other side of the police crime scene tape. Managing up to five photographic jobs a day, she mastered the ability to shoot and process quickly – in the old dark room style. This skill would serve her well on the high-pressured overseas assignments that were to come.

“You just have to do it. Get the shot, edit, grab your stuff and head out again. It has set me up well as I can really work to tight deadlines. And I enjoyed it – never a dull moment!”

Joining the national broadsheet The Australian in 1999 Renee was at the forefront of world-changing events, camera poised. Her photo essays of the Bali bombings, the tsunami in Aceh, the coups of Fiji, the Tampa crisis in Nauru, the bloodshed in East Timor are poignant and powerful. Renee’s brilliance as a news photographer is unquestioned and she has won two coveted Nikon Walkley Awards for Press Photographer of the Year.

Renee’s sensitivity and empathy for the subject sets her work apart. She captures the intimacy of the moment, which transcends image. More than a photograph, it is thought-provoking art. Her photo essay series on Indigenous life in the Northern Territory during the Federal Government’s intervention conveys the sorrow and the dignity of these people. 

“I love what I do. To capture the detail of daily life is why I still do this job. To be somewhere and not be known or noticed, and let the subject do his or her own thing. That’s my focus. That’s the empathy I want to create,” Renee said.

Her exceptional portraiture has also been recognised. In 2003 she won the Walkley for Australian Portrait Photographer of the Year with her provocative photo of a Bali bomb victim. Two years later she was a finalist for  Walkley for Daily Life Photographer of the Year with the unforgettable image of an Australian soldier and a Philippines prisoner. Renee has also been a Walkley finalist another four times.

Renee’s talent goes beyond hard news and capturing a split second moment, like the fatigued Malcolm Turnbull at a seniors morning tea on the campaign trail in 2016. She has an innate ability to put her subjects at ease and extract their essence for the camera. Whether it’s A-list celebrities Cate Blanchett, Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, Jerry Hall, Lou Reed, Tommy Lee, Noel Gallagher or Australian Prime Ministers Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard or a shy shearer, playful Aboriginal children and a cocky Mamdouh Habib. She even managed to relax notorious chef Gordon Ramsay and get him to smile!

Since leaving The Australian, Renee now uses her considerable skill, experience and accolades in the private sector as a freelancer. Focussing on corporate photography, her goal is to “shoot corporate jobs with the same principles as a news job”.

And she will use her exceptional eye to capture the joy of weddings, photographing the happiest day of a couple’s life.

Renee is also a mentor to up-and-coming photographers. She has been a keynote speaker and a teacher at Nikon events. And as a female in a tough, male-dominated industry, she is an inspiration to all women. Renee has twice judged the Walkley Awards and her contribution to photography is such she was nominated for inclusion in 2011 Who’s Who Of Australian Women.