Stuart Westmore

“I like the idea that a photograph can change the world,” says Melbourne-based photographer, Stuart Westmore. “A poster of Peter Dombrovskis’ Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend hung on my wall in a share house during the [Tasmanian] ‘No Dams’ campaign in the 1980s. That was great art, and it was an image that helped to save a large swathe of southwest Tasmania,” he says. “It changed my life and planted the seed of landscape photography that’s been growing ever since.”

Photography however, is not Westmore’s full-time job. “I kind of like it that way,” he says. “It’s a reward, an escape, and a good excuse to travel.” Westmore was self-taught in film photography in his twenties, using a borrowed SLR, but he moved away from photography for a while. “By the time I re-engaged [with photography] about five years ago, everything was digital. And I love it,” he says. He developed his digital photography skills by attending courses and workshops. “I have so many photography books that my family have instituted a ‘one-in, one-out’ rule,” he says.

Collaboration with other photographers is Westmore’s preferred method of pushing his limits and renewing his work. “I have fallen in with two rising stars from Western Australia: Tina Bartley and Sheldon Pettit (Capture’s 2014 and 2015 Emerging Landscape Photographer of the Year, and overall winner in 2015),” he says. Westmore shoots with them several times a year, and they exchange feedback online. “It’s very supportive, a little bit competitive, and very motivating. Everyone wants to lift the bar.”

Last year was a particularly successful one for Westmore. Not only did he hold a joint exhibition with Pettit at Team Digital, in Perth, but was also named runner-up in the landscape category of Capture’s Emerging Photographer of the Year competition. And since then, his images have been picked up by Bell Street Printworks Gallery in Torquay, Victoria.
Recently, Westmore’s interest has focussed on the urban landscape. “Somehow, my long suit has become urban and industrial images,” he says. “My teenage kids are my location spotters. They come home with reports of abandoned shopping trolleys in rivers and drains.”

Westmore is motivated by the search for the unexpected. “I like the idea of finding something beautiful or remarkable, where it is not expected,” he says. “I’m interested in decay and renewal.” He always has something to do, though. ”I still haven’t seen a landscape I didn’t want to photograph,” he says.
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