Putting a long lens on Albany

His job as a press photographer has taken him to some of WA’s most remote places, overseas to war-stricken Afghanistan and on a search through Pakistan with a Gold Walkley Award winning journalist.

Now based in Albany, photographer Lee Griffith has embarked on a new challenge in the form of a 52-week long project.

Using his trusty camera and calling on his 13 years experience as a photographer for The West Australian, Griffith is documenting in pictures the Great Southern region, its lifestyle and people.

Some of Griffith’s most recognised images are from an assignment, where he and journalist Steve Pennells searched for families of asylum seekers whose boat sank off Christmas Island in 2012.

The images accompanied Pennells’ Walkley Award winning article and won a WA Media Award for best feature photographic essay, while Griffith was also a finalist in the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Awards the same year.

Closer to home, Griffith fondly remembers an assignment in WA’s Kimberley region as a career highlight.

“One of the most incredible experiences was going up to the Buccaneer Archipelago near Derby,” he said.

“We travelled out to the horizontal falls and did a magazine piece on the recluse people who lived out there — it was one of the things you would rarely get to do.”

Griffith has now traded the deadline-driven environment of newspapers for a much slower paced lifestyle, moving to Albany four months ago.

He has started a challenging 52-week project called Portraits of the Great Southern, where he is aiming to take at least one photograph a week of the region, covering everything from landscapes to portraiture features.

Griffith, who has so far snapped horses training on Middleton Beach at dawn, and a series of black-and-white images of Lower Kalgan Bridge, said the project was driven by his urge to meet people from his new home region.

“I hadn’t just moved to the region because of family, but because I thought it was a fantastic place,” he said.

“Being able to experience it photographically through both a challenging project, and something I could shoot and photograph in my own way, and own form, was a really exciting prospect.”

The photographer said his new project was a little different to what he was used to while shooting for the press.

“The techniques you use are essentially the same but the eye you might use to visualise something is different,” Griffith said.

“I now have the opportunity to tell the same story through many images and somewhat more creatively.”

He is looking forward to following up his own ideas over the year, but is happy to hear ideas and feedback from others.

“We do live in a pristine place and it’s a bit of a reminder that these things are here on our doorstep, and we can experience them weekly or daily,” Griffith said.

To follow the essay, visit www.leegriffith.com.au.