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Words one would be compelled to use to describe the images Walkley Award winning photographer, Renee Nowytarger, creates. YEN turned the spotlight for a change and captured Nowytarger’s emotions proceeding her most heart wrenching assignments
May 2005. Navotas prison, Manila. The cell is so crowded that the 100 plus male prisoners have to take turns to lie down. The heat and stench are all but unbearable, some men had TB, skin infections are rife. Photojournalist Renee Nowytarger talks quietly to men about their stories. Visitors fill the narrow corridor between the cells. Even here it is putrid, dark and claustrophobic. Renee squeezes through and takes pictures.
DEATH IS EVERYWHERE
The trip to Manila was just one of the gruelling overseas assignments Renee embarked on as part of her work as news photographer for The Australian. “We sent her because we knew she could do the job,” says Paul Burston, Picture Editor at The Australian. After 15 years experience Renee knew she could do it too.
December 2005. Three days after the tsunami struck Indonesia, Renee flew into Aceh to cover the aftermath. “There was so much death and devastation, I quickly decided to look for stories about people coping in the face of it. Most of the dead were buried in mass graves but I met a family who were planning a funeral for their 12-year-old daughter. It’s probably the most intrusive I’ve ever felt on assignment but they wanted me to take photographs. I think they saw me as playing a part in recording the ritual.”
The pictures are astonishing and moving. The girl, Nuratia, lies fragile and still as tender hands reach in to clean and dress her body. Through these images we empathise with people trying to make sense of unbearable loss through the dignity of ceremony. “I remember the photos coming in to the news desk,” recalls Burston. “There wasn’t anything else like it. I found them incredibly moving and intimate. They’re a testament to Renee’s ability to find the people and emotion in a picture.”
THE FIRST ROLL
It was a far cry from the tragedies of Aceh where Renee grew up in Oxford Falls, rural New South Wales. Her first photos, because she always took photos, were “pictures around the house or of the trees in different lights, the dog, the horses up the road, the chicken sheds. After I left school, I worked in pubs and did telemarketing to put myself through a college photography course then I rang around all the papers. I wasn’t paid, I just did jobs for the experience.”
At age 17, Renee got a job with Cumberland Press. Ros Cannon, News Photographer at the Manly Daily, was on staff when she started as a cadet. “What I remember was her commitment to her job and passion for photography, and her commitment to family and friends. She’s still like that. Her passion has never waned. She’s an inspiration.”
Renee relished the challenge of the busy newspaper. “It was a perfect learning ground because you do everything, sport, news, court.” When asked how she fronts up to get photos in all these situations, Renee laughs. “I grew up with two brothers and used to ride skateboards and BMX with them. That helped when it came to holding my own with other photographers. It never occurred to me I could be put down or pushed out of the way.”
FRONTLINE ACTION
“It’s a point of honour with her when there’s a news pack of photographers and reporters covering a story to always be at the front or centre,” says Stephen Fitzpatrick, The Australian’s Indonesian Correspondent. “It’s like a rugby scrum and she’s smaller than most of them, but she’s always there.” As foreign editor, Fitzpatrick travelled and worked with Renee, finding and covering stories in Bali. “She’s a consummate news photographer – her sense of a story is terrific. She’s also an awesome photographer and in those situations of tragedy her compassion for her subject is palpable. They know she’s on their side.”
In grief or celebration, Renee’s photos are all about the people. She has a great kinesthetic sense, perhaps because of her own physicality. She can find the emotional expression in a gesture or the line of a shoulder. “I want to show and respect people as they are rather than who we expect them to be,” she says. “I take each job without much judgment.”
When it came to photographing the working girls in a Bali brothel, Renee got beyond stereotypes to reveal the girls themselves. “They weren’t high end escorts or derelict women off the street, they were just girls working in a karaoke bar, putting on their red dresses at night.” The girls Renee shot posing in the bathroom show a defiant, youthful attitude. She admires photographer Sebastiao Salgado for the dignity he gives his subjects, his use of light and attention to the expression of their bodies. “That’s what I’m looking for. I look at body language then try to enhance it by how I shoot them in the environment.”
A DESERVED AWARD
Last year Renee won both the Daily Life and Press Photographer of the Year at the Walkley Awards. Of the ceremony she says, “I had no idea I was going to win. When they got to introducing the Photographer of the Year I saw my photos coming up on screen and I thought, that’s nice they’re showing all the nominees’ work. Then the cameraman is waving at me, saying get up. I got such a shock. My speech must have been the shortest in Walkley history.”
Walkley juror David Dare Parker, himself a veteran of reportage and feature photography, says “Renee’s was the obvious standout work. She’d delivered on all points. She’s a classic photojournalist with a terrific news sense. Almost every image within each photo essay could stand alone on its own merits.” Renee is the first female to be awarded this top photographic prize. “It’s great, and one for the girls,” she says, “but I don’t think me being a woman should matter either. I’m just doing the job.” Parker agrees, “The bottom line is she works hard to get those images, you can’t get them any other way.”
SELF-MOTIVATION
Talking to Renee is like a shot in the arm. Her focus, compassion for her subjects and her professionalism are an inspiration. With a sensitive and skilled eye she shows us what is happening to our fellow humans. Blessed with a physical toughness, people ask her how she does it. “I just keep going. I think I drive people nuts actually, it doesn’t make me crack up or anything if I don’t get sleep. I want to work, I think it’s important and that’s what gives me the drive. How do I handle it? I’m not handling anything compared to what these people are going through. I’m not the one who’s lost my house or been thrown in prison for stealing a fish to feed my family.”
“What Renee experienced last year was as tough for her as it would be for anyone, but I think it’s her compassion for the people whose stories she’s telling that enables her to do it. I think her compassion has deepened even further and that in turn has deepened her professional focus,” states Fitzpatrick.
Doing news pictures day after day can crush your enthusiasm at times but Renee always keeps it fresh,” says Burston. “It’s a culture shock to be covering something like the tsunami then coming back to photograph a business story, but she’s always looking for the next great picture, whatever the story.”
When asked, what’s next? The answer for Renee is simple. “I want to keep going, getting the best photos I can.”
