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Exhibition to show how hobby became passion

Gareth McKnightBroome Advertiser
Broome-based photographer Mieke Boynton is quickly gaining a venerable reputation after winning a host of prestigious awards.
Camera IconBroome-based photographer Mieke Boynton is quickly gaining a venerable reputation after winning a host of prestigious awards. Credit: Broome Advertiser

Broome’s Mieke Boynton has continued to build her burgeoning reputation as a renowned landscape photographer this year, with recognition in a host of prestigious international awards and an exclusive exhibition planned for next year.

She may work at Kimberley Training Institute as the learning resources co-ordinator by day, but by night and on the weekends Mieke’s focus is based around her trusty Nikon D800 camera.

What started as a hobby has been cultivated into a passion, with the Broome woman turning the enjoyable pastime into a profession – and awards flooding in as testament to the calibre of her work.

She has recently been recognised for the third consecutive year at the Perth National Photographic Exhibition, scooping second place in the open monochrome prints category for a striking image she took in Indonesia last year.

The Kimberley snapper was in the Asian country as Australia’s delegate at International Photography Week in 2014, meeting with fellow photographers from all over the in the world.

The image that scooped second is namedWatching the Days Go By and captures an elderly Indonesian woman in deep thought.

Mieke has won and been nominated for countless awards and accolades over the last four years, but rates her latest nomination, as one of 25 finalists in The Kennedy Prize Art Award, as one of her most significant. The winner is set for a $25,000 windfall.

The Broome photographer has also been recognised at the local Kimberley Photographic Award and Kimberley Art Prize over recent years, but is set to see her work displayed on a grander scale in 2016.

Mieke has been selected as one of 11 respected photographers to display her work at the Wilderness Gallery in Tasmania.

Twenty images she has captured in the Kimberley and on trips to Norway and Indonesia will be on show at the venerable Wilderness Exhibition in Cradle Mountain in April 2016.

Mieke toldThe Broome Advertiser that moving to the Kimberley sparked her love for photography.

“I moved from Melbourne to Wyndham in 2008 and arrived in the wet season when the grass was fluorescent green, the damp soil was vivid red and the skies changed colour constantly,” she said.

“I'd never seen anything like it and I took hundreds of photos with my little Kodak Easyshare camera, saving them on CDs and posting them to my family and friends all over the world. I got hooked pretty quickly.”

Mieke has trips to Norway and Patagonia planned for next year, but feels where she lives is ideal inspiration for expanding her portfolio and international regard.

“I am so lucky to live in the Kimberley; wherever I go, I'm aware of its ancient spirituality and living presence - the colours are just unbelievable,” she said.

“There's simply nowhere else like it in the world, and my goal is for my photography is to convey a little of the awe that I feel for Its vast, timeless beauty. That's much more important to me than winning awards.”

Mieke has a stall at the Broome courthouse markets every Saturday. Her recent work is on show at www.facebook.com/MiekeBoyntonPhotography .

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