Ruth
Woodrow
I am a Melbourne-based photographer specialising in travel, street, portrait and wildlife photography.
I’ve always been interested in photography, but I never really pursued it. After I met my husband Paul, I borrowed his SLR camera and started taking black and white film images, which we then developed in our make-shift darkroom in our bathroom. Later, I got my first DSLR and, at about the same time, I started working as a Park Ranger, so it seemed natural to turn my love of the outdoors into a love of nature and wildlife photography. Since then, Paul and I have travelled extensively, photographing the birds and wildlife around the world. This has developed into a love of all sorts of travel and documentary photography, including photojournalism and street photography.
In 2019, I joined the Melbourne Camera Club and this proved to be a turning point in my photographic career. First of all being able to mingle with other like-minded photographers. But secondly to compete in the club’s competitions which has expanded into entering and being awarded in a wide range of both national and international competitions.
I took out 5th place overall in the Travel category of Australian Photographer of the Year 2019. I have also won several awards in street photography, most notably a Silver award in the Life in a Time of Social Isolation category in the 2020 Mosman Photography Awards. I have also won commendations and high commendations in such competitions as the Australian Photography Awards and the Portrait Conference. I was again a finalist in the 2020 APA competition. One of my portraits is also to be published in the Australian Association of Street Photographers “Shot in the Heart of Melbourne” book.
Whilst I have achieved well in these categories, perhaps I am best known for my illustrative work – particularly my “Melbourne in Isolation” collage of 256 images of my feet over interesting signs and symbols that I encountered on my daily walks with my husband during Melbourne’s lock-down this year. This image won the Newcomer category in the 2020 AIPP Silver Lining Awards and has been published in The Australian and several magazines around the country and internationally. Most recently this image won three awards at the Melbourne Camera Club's End of Year 2020 Competition - The Alan G. Gray Trophy for the best Projected Image of 2020; the Grace Lock Trophy for the best PDI Open image; and the Ian Bock Trophy – Photography is Fun. Plus, it won the Runner-up prize in the Creative Category of the Australian Photography Magazine's Photographer of the Year 2020 Competition.
I am a Member of the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers (AIPP).
