Joe Wigdahl 2/12/20 Joe Wigdahl 2/12/20

Car Collector Danny Irvine for Mazda

Portraits of the vintage Mazda car collector Danny Irvine, for Mazda Motors.

Last year Mazda asked me to shoot some portraits of Danny Irvine, one of Australia’s biggest collectors of rare and vintage Mazdas. It’s great meeting someone who is so passionate about what they do that it sort of seems like they’re just having fun all the time.

Here’s a link to the article from 100 Years of Mazda:
https://www.mazda.com.au/beyond-the-drive/Autumn-2020/what-does-mazda-mean-to-you/

Joe Wigdahl 6/5/16 Joe Wigdahl 6/5/16

New Work: Lifestyle shoot with Justin and Amelia

I've been shooting some new work lately and have been doing some shoots with some of the talent from Bella Management here in Sydney. I had approached Bella Mgmt with some ideas and one of which was about a couple on a roadtrip, dirty and sweaty from days on the road in a crappy car and they're lost in the middle of nowhere. I don't really do very much work that falls into the fashion realm so I tend to want to mess up their hair and clothes and make it feel more real I guess. I was kind of surprised they went for it and ended up loving the shots. Can't wait to do more of these.

Joe Wigdahl 13/1/15 Joe Wigdahl 13/1/15

Smithsonian Magazine: The Blue Mountains

Night in the Jamison Valley Blue Mountains

A few months ago I was contacted by the U.S. natural history publication the Smithsonian Magazine to shoot a story on Charles Darwin’s exploration of the Blue Mountains- it’s one of my favourite places in Australia.

It was a shoot that I became more passionate about as I worked my way through the assignment; it was an odd coincidence that I was hired for this shoot- a few weeks before the magazine asked me about doing the assignment my wife and I had decided to move our family to the Blue Mountains. It was a pretty exciting opportunity to explore a whole region that would be our new home. It was early spring when I started the job and the Blue Mountains is much colder and rainier than Sydney, so instead of doing the whole shoot in one trip, I actually had to drive out to the mountains every weekend for a month to get a break from the rain and fog and get all the shots I needed.

Evening at the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains

The ancient Wollemi Pine and the Wolgan Valley where it was found.

In Glenbrook and also in the Wolgan Valley I saw hand paintings in caves which are said to range from hundreds to thousands of years old and it struck me how much more of an impact seeing hand prints made on me than carvings or drawings I’ve seen at other sites. To see a hand print of someone from thousands of years before is to see their size, their age and their physical humanity and connect with them in a way I hadn’t really sensed before. I noticed one set of hand prints where the person must have broken their hand at some point and it healed badly because one of the fingers bent away from the hand in an unnaturally awkward angle. I felt like I was reading some form of ancient text about who lived on this land.

Often when I'm shooting a morning landscape I'll get to the location well before dawn and shoot through the sunrise for an hour or two. Even in a not-so-mindblowing landscape there is usually a moment where the light and the morning atmosphere does something that makes everything light up in the right way. For these shots of what is known as the Jamison Valley in the Blue Mountains off of Sublime Point in Leura, I felt like I was watching a light show- the sun, the mist and the eucalyptus vapor in the air kept changing colors and lighting up the landscape in surprisingly different ways. Every 10 minutes was something different. Finally when I was done I set the camera down in the grass while I was packing up my gear and tripod and grabbed a quick shot- I realised that that was probably my favorite shot of the morning.

Landscape of the changing light of a sunrise in the Blue Mountains from Sublime Point in Leura

I spent a day doing a massive hike in the bushwalk around the Three Sisters. I started off at Scenic World taking the world's steepest train down the escarpment and walked for hours around the bush track. I wasn't keeping track of time and missed their last elevator back up, so I ended up having to climb the near-vertical staircase up the Three Sisters with a backpack full of heavy camera gear after I was already tired from hiking all day. By the time I walked back to my car and put the keys in the ignition I closed my eyes for a second and ended up sleeping for an hour and a half in the drivers seat with the door open.

The cottage that Darwin stayed in was located on the property of the Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort- the most expensive hotel in Australia. I had arrived on a Friday afternoon and it coincided with their absolute busiest time- when the guests are all arriving for the weekend. There were Ferraris and Lamborghinis in the parking lot and guests landing at the helicopter pad and I was given about an hour to shoot what I needed to get before they had to devote their full attention to the guests. Since the magazine budget clearly did not involve staying at the spa, after I was done shooting I had to drive about an hour before I could find a place to stay. The local town was having a big lawn bowling competition and all of the rooms were booked out to drunken retirees enjoying their night out with the boys. The only place I could find to sleep was a room above a loud pub with a bunch of guys arguing about rugby. My bed must have been a junior bed because my feet hung off the bed past my ankles and I could hear a guy in the room next door watching porn on his phone all night. The difference between the Emirates Spa and the sleeping situation I had arrived at could not have been more stark. I had a late dinner at a local bar and was called a "fancypants" by one of the locals. I couldn't really figure out why other than the fact that I was wearing glasses and reading while eating dinner. I guess I was being a fancypants.

I had taken some big hikes getting (sort of) lost looking through a cave system in the Wolgan Valley for some hand paintings that were just too hard to find. Instead I got sunburn and bug bites. After finding only a few hand paintings I struck out for the Mt. Tomah Botanical Gardens which have examples of wollemi pines growing in their gardens. It was the end of the shoot, I had gotten everything ticked off my shot list and I was looking forward to going home the next day.

I was supposed to meet Darwin's great-great-grandson Chris Darwin and shoot his portrait, but despite our best efforts we just couldn't make it happen- he had booked passage on a very slow container ship from France to Australia to reduce his carbon footprint and didn't get back until after the story went to press.

The story that the images accompany can be found on the Smithsonian's website here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/australia-put-evolution-darwins-mind-180953651/?no-ist

Joe Wigdahl 17/10/13 Joe Wigdahl 17/10/13

The Monocle Guide to Better Living

The Monocle Magazine has just come out with a hefty new book titled, "The Monocle Guide to Better Living" and I have a two page spread inside featuring a shoot about swimming in Sydney I did for them last year. It's a beautiful book and it's great to have my images alongside other photographers and stories from around the world.

Joe Wigdahl 21/5/13 Joe Wigdahl 21/5/13

Portrait for Good Weekend: Writer Drusilla Modjeska

Portrait of the Australian writer Drusilla Modjeska for a Good Weekend story about her bout with breast cancer.

This was one of those shoots where the subject, Australian writer Drusilla Modjeska, wasn't really too keen on being in a photoshoot. She gave me all sorts of warnings about how she's not a good subject, the camera doesn't like her etc. and I just said, "Don't worry. Let's just hang out and chat for an hour and I'll take some pics over the course of the conversation. That's it." She had a gigantic library, covering most of the walls of the house from floor to ceiling as well as a large collection of Papuan tribal art from her visits to Papua New Guinea in the 50's and 60's. It was a breeze talking to her and she's one of those people that I wish I could meet every week for a brief chat just to keep my brain stimulated. We talked about families, authors, history and tribal art. When I was sure I got the shot I told her I was done and she seemed surprised that what we had just done was a photoshoot. It doesn't have to be an intimidating thing with lights and stylists and the whole circus. Sometimes a shoot can be two people having a nice chat.

Joe Wigdahl 25/7/12 Joe Wigdahl 25/7/12

Monocle Magazine: Sydney Swimming

Last month Monocle Magazine featured the most liveable cities in the world and of course, Sydney was one of them. They wanted me to travel around the Sydney area and document the people and places that makes swimming feature so strongly in the Sydney lifestyle. I traveled around the northern beaches like Balmoral and Manly and many of the eastern beaches like Clovelly, Maroubra and of course, Bondi. I'm a big swimmer myself so I was really looking forward to hitting the spots that I love and getting the chance to find some new ones.

Below is Murray Cox. It was sheer luck meeting Murray as he was the first person I met on the first morning I went out to begin shooting for the article. It turns out Murray has been swimming in Sydney his entire life and is one of those rare swimmers who has "connected the dots," which means he swam every beach in the Sydney area from Palm Beach in the north down to Kernell in the south. He knew everybody associated with swimming in Sydney and put me in touch with just about everyone else I had to shoot for this article. What a find!

It was the beginning of winter here in Sydney when I began to shoot for this article, so most swimmers had retired until spring. Most of the people I met for the article were the few hard-core all season people. When I first moved to Australia I swam year-round as I was accustomed to swimming in chilly Lake Michigan (the water temp in Lake Michigan still never gets warmer in the summer than Sydney gets in the winter) and I would happily spend an hour or so in the winter water in my board shorts. A lifeguard had come out once to check to make sure I didn't have hypothermia and I sort of laughed at the idea of being that cold. Now, a year and half into living in Oz and I'm completely acclimated and I can't go in the water for more than 10 minutes without reaching for my wetsuit and feeling like I'm going to freeze to death.

My mother happened to be visiting us from the U.S. for a few weeks so I decided that it would be a great way to show her a bit of Sydney by taking her with me to Balmoral to shoot one of the Balmoral women's swimming clubs. The women loved that I brought my mom to a shoot and my mom ended up being so inspired by the incredible fitness of these swimmers (many of whom are my mom's age or older) that she decided afterwards to join a swim club.

Joe Wigdahl 5/6/12 Joe Wigdahl 5/6/12

Tasmania / Smithsonian Magazine

I was recently asked by the American publication The Smithsonian Magazine to shoot a cover story featuring Tasmania and Tasmania's world famous MONA Museum. I was asked to document Hobart, shoot the Mona museum and some portraits of its notoriously camera-shy owner David Walsh and then afterwards make my way up to the Freycinet Peninsula to document the award winning Sapphire Hotel, Wineglass Bay and the incredible surrounding landscapes. The article can be read here.Unfortunately due to the location agreements I had to sign with MONA and the Sapphire Hotel, the pictures I took were only allowed to be published in the Smithsonian Magazine so I've just put in a few landscape shots from the trip.

David Walsh- MONA Museum Owner

Brian Ritchie

Tasmania landscape shots- a wooded path.

I had no idea what to expect before I met David Walsh, owner of the MONA museum in Hobart. I couldn't find much about him before I went to the shoot except that he had created his wealth as a professional gambler and that the museum was actually his personal art collection. I also knew that he hated meeting photographers and having his picture taken and that his persona, at least in print, was that of a recluse. His assistant Delia had warned me that I might only have 10 minutes tops to shoot him. When he finally arrived I immediately took a liking to him and I had one of the most interesting conversations I'd had in years and we ended spending almost 2 hours talking and shooting. We talked about the spirit and energy behind collectors and collecting and the function of art. The conversation bounced around from game theory to physics to ancient seafaring and trade and I left the shoot wishing I could spend a lot more time listening to him.

Afterwards I got the chance to meet former Violent Femmes bass player, Brian Ritchie, who now lives in Tasmania and coordinates music events for MONA and for much of the Hobart music scene. He and his wife Valuni Kulasakera own the best tea company in Australia, Chado Tea, and they welcomed me into their home so that I could shoot a portrait of Brian for the story, drink some tea and reminisce about our favorite Milwaukee haunts.

I only had a few days to shoot in Tasmania but it was so beautiful and the people were so friendly that I definitely plan to return soon.

Joe Wigdahl 24/4/12 Joe Wigdahl 24/4/12

Mazda BT-50 Shoot: Zoom Zoom Magazine

Last month I was asked by the UK's Redwood Media Group to shoot a story featuring Mazda's new BT-50 model for its award-winning online presence, Zoom Zoom Magazine. They wanted to tell a story about a day in the life of a BT-50 owner with a natural, reportage feel- showcasing its versatility by following the owner through rough terrain, a surf trip, a trip to the zoo "glamping" (glamorous camping) with his nieces and capped with a night out on the town.We had a looonngggg shot list for the 2 day shoot and I was working alongside Jefferson Grainger, from Corporate Video Australia, who was shooting the motion segment of the piece for the web. Working alongside a motion crew on the same production can be pretty challenging for a still shooter because it can significantly cut into the time there is to shoot- especially if the motion crew is shooting sound or if they don't want to give time to the still shooter (which happens a lot). Thankfully that wasn't the case in this shoot as Jefferson and I both realized that we were going to have to really work together to make sure that each of us got what we needed and it was actually a lot of fun bouncing ideas off one another as to how to get as many good shots as we could in the time that we had. The client was really happy with the results and I just finished shooting a second feature in Sydney for Zoom Zoom Magazine last week. I've included the tears and just a few of the images from the shoot here.

Joe Wigdahl 5/4/12 Joe Wigdahl 5/4/12

Sick Kids

Good Weekend had an assignment for me a few weeks ago to cover a story about several families with children who are critically ill and have terminal illnesses. In two cases the children were born with a devastating disease that made it unable for them to develop mentally and physically as a normal child would. In the case of the third child, Kirrilee had led an active, vibrant childhood and then when she was 12 suddenly suffered a mysterious brain illness that left her profoundly impaired and gravely ill for the last 6 years. Her illness requires 24 hours of constant observation and care, most of which is provided by her mother. Update: a few months after writing this article Kirrilee sadly passed away.

Often when I'm asked to shoot something for an assignment it doesn't occur to me how odd it is that I'm a total stranger that people let into their homes. I chat for a while, maybe set up some lights, take some pictures and then leave. It's rare that I get to read a story before I have to shoot for it so I often walk into a shoot situation not really knowing exactly what it is I'm covering. Usually the people I'm taking pictures of aren't familiar with shoots so they don't have a lot of time set aside for me to take pictures and it's pretty hard for me to impose more than an hour or two of shooting so I often have to work fast and thoroughly while trying to keep the subject relaxed.

In each case when I met the families for this shoot I knocked on the door with a sense of apprehension about what I was walking into. How sick would the child be? What would the families be like? Would they be sad? Angry? Would I have to tiptoe around certain subjects? Do they really even want me to take pictures?

As I walked through the front door I was thoroughly surprised at how welcoming and loving each family was and I immediately felt a warmth that I don't often get right away when walking into a stranger's home. I heard stories about 24 hour care, constant trips to hospitals, emotional turmoil, exhaustion and alienation but I also witnessed deep love, acceptance and thriving senses of humor. I was surprised at how often the parents and siblings of these sick children were saying things that had me cracking up. They seemed glad to have me come take pictures so that other people could learn about their stories. I felt lucky to get to meet these families and I really wanted to hang out all day with them. I've posted a video of a Kirrilee's brothers performing a dance routine that they do to keep the family entertained.

http://vimeo.com/39806546

At the end I felt like it was a tough story to shoot because my wife and I had just given birth to a daughter a few weeks before and we had been going through all of the ups and downs of new parenthood. We were dealing with the massive adjustment in sleep loss and lifestyle change and that feeling that we had no idea what were doing. I know that both my wife and I would look at our little girl and feel an enormous sense of love, responsibility and hope for the kind of parents we would be and the type of person our child would become. Seeing these sick children made me think about how families adapt when plans suddenly change and how they deal with the bumps and bruises of a life they didn't expect.

All of these families have needed the professional and medical support of Bear Cottage, an institution in Manly, NSW Australia dedicated to serving children and families of children with life limiting illnesses. Donations to Bear Cottage can be made here: https://support.bandagedbear.org.au/donation-bear-cottage

For more information about Bear Cottage, please go here: http://www.bearcottage.chw.edu.au/

UPDATE 21/05/2014: Several news outlets who have picked up this story have erroneously stated that Kirrilee was dying or on her deathbed when this image was taken and this is not true. She was at home and healthy at the time of the photoshoot. It is true that a few months after I shot this image Kirrilee passed away at Bear Cottage.

Joe Wigdahl 6/3/12 Joe Wigdahl 6/3/12

Monocle Magazine Shoot: Darwin, Australia

Last month Monocle Magazine sent me up to Australia's Northern Territory to cover a story on their burgeoning capital city, Darwin. Darwin has become big news in the last few years as the United States has promised to begin stationing several hundred troops there in an effort to re-establish a naval presence in that part of the world. There's also been some massive investment in natural gas by the Japanese and French to the tune of $39 billion AUD. Monocle wanted to find out how this new interest in Darwin might change the city and what the people and government thought about it. I teamed up with Darwin journalist Eric Tlozek to meet some VIPs there and shoot everything I could with the 2 days that I had.

An example of Troppo design and the homeowner.

It was over 90°F and 99% humidity when I was there so my lens would fog up every time I took the lens cap off and I was dripping with sweat pretty much the entire time. I was dying to go for a swim but couldn't because the water is filled with deadly box jellyfish. I also had the strange experience of getting thrown out of public spaces and people making me delete pictures because they were afraid they might be in the shots- I guess they're a little spooked up there about strangers walking around and taking pictures.

In my own experience, a lot of the people didn't really like all the new attention that was being brought to Darwin and quite a few didn't like what the new money and gentrification was bringing. One guy told me how much he missed the Darwin that he knew before the streets were paved (which wasn't all that long ago). Conversely, we had many people welcome us into their homes as we took pictures of the unique style of architecture in Darwin designed specifically for the tropical climate called Troppo Architecture. I also met people who had a key role in bringing about Darwin's change including the Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, the head of the Northern Territory's Cattleman's Association and a couple who successfully launched the first lifestyle magazine and gay nightclub in the entire Northern Territory. In their eyes the timing of Darwin's coming changes is just about right.

Joe Wigdahl 8/2/12 Joe Wigdahl 8/2/12

Good Weekend Magazine crew rowing story

A few months ago I was asked by Good Weekend Magazine to go down to Canberra and shoot images to go along with a series that they were doing about a few writers trying their hand at training for a day in an Olympic sport. I followed writer Mark Dapin as he went through a light version of the incredibly intense daily workout regimen and technique routines of the crew rower.

Joe Wigdahl 14/11/11 Joe Wigdahl 14/11/11

Good Weekend Cover and Story

A story I shot a few weeks ago for the Sydney Morning Herald's weekend magazine, Good Weekend, just appeared this past weekend as the cover story. It was one of those happy instances where printing on matte newspaper stock made the pictures look fantastic and I was really happy with the end result.

Joe Wigdahl 29/9/11 Joe Wigdahl 29/9/11

Sydney Magazine Shoot- Sonoma Bakery

I did my first shoot for Sydney Magazine covering the day in a life of a loaf of bread as it's made by Sonoma Bakery every day. I was pretty excited for this story because I'm big into cooking and baking- I make my own beer and cheese and had been baking bread for a while but I hadn't really had much luck with the sourdough. It was inspiring to see a bakery at the production level of Sonoma still using the best ingredients and making everything by hand.

A few weeks ago I did my first shoot for Sydney Magazine covering the day in a life of a loaf of bread as it's made by Sonoma Bakery every day. I was pretty excited for this story because I'm big into cooking and baking- I make my own beer and cheese and had been baking bread for a while but I hadn't really had much luck with the sourdough. It was inspiring to see a bakery at the production level of Sonoma still using the best ingredients and making everything by hand. In order to follow a loaf of bread from start to finish I had a 1:45am start time and finished around noon. Those kinds of hours do all sorts of interesting things to the eyes and brain when trying to shoot- I have absolutely no idea how doctors do 30 hour shifts.

Sydney Magazine- Our Daily Bread

A batch of fresh dough coming out of the mixer.

A kalamata olive dough resting.

Dividing the dough into loaf-sized portions.

Preparing baguettes.

One of the many bakers who hand-knead the loaves every day.

Loaves proofing in bannetons.

Retarding the loaves in a cooler to improve texture and flavor.

Dusting the loaves

Scored loaves ready for baking.

Just out of the oven.

Bread lands on the table at a Sydney cafe.

Joe Wigdahl 22/8/11 Joe Wigdahl 22/8/11

Cover and leading story for Good Weekend

I shot the images for the cover story of this past weekend's issue of Good Weekend, a major Australian magazine distributed in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age every Saturday. It's Australia's equivalent of the New York Times Magazine. I'd like to say it was a challenging shoot but getting teenagers to look like they're playing video games is just about the easiest thing in the world. It was my first Australian magazine cover and my first time working with the people at Good Weekend and I had a great time.