World Surf League Portraits

In April 2021 I did a portrait session of the World Surf League competitors on location at the Rip Curl Narrabeen Classic, setting up my backdrop right by the athletes locker room. This was one of the first surfing events to happen in Australia since the pandemic hit, with the previous year of events cancelled due to restrictions. WSL held a handful of events across the country at this time, and to put this in context, this shoot happened in between lockdowns for those living in Sydney & New South Wales. 

It felt strange at the time because we’d just came off a year of on-again-off-again restrictions and it had been so long since I was at an event, but also had a nice sense of relief as it felt like people and society were operating and coming together again. It was only a short time - about a month or two later - that we went back into another lockdown. Looking back I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to photograph portraits at a WSL event given the circumstances of that time.

It felt great knowing that this overall experience, and series, came from a time when I didn’t feel it was possible to create and photograph at this scale. It was a privilege to  photograph these surfers from a historical point of view too – being one of the first international sporting events to happen again in Australia since early 2020.