World-renowned photographer Martine Perret has turned her lens to Western Australia’s Midwest, bringing to life the stories of women from regional towns through her Women of the Hinterlands project.<\/p>\n
After spending more than a decade covering United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions and conflict zones, Ms Perret now bases herself in WA’s South West.<\/p>\n
Since her UN days, she has shifted her focus to the outback, with her project zooming in on the connection women have with the land.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ella DeBruyn grew up on a farm in Carnamah, nearly 300km north-east of Perth. (Supplied: Martine Perret)<\/p>\n
Between 2021 and 2024, Ms Perret worked with women across Morawa, Mingenew, Perenjori and Carnamah, culminating in her exhibition Women of the Hinterland.<\/p>\n
“It was pretty extraordinary that all of these women were willing to share and reveal some aspects of their life,” Ms Perret said.<\/p>\n
Cheryl Bell lives in Mingenew, 360km north-east of Perth. (Supplied: Martine Perret)<\/p>\n
Resilient and strong<\/p>\n
Ms Perret spent hours with each person, listening to their stories, learning about their lives and exploring the themes of her hinterland project.<\/p>\n
“They are really resilient and strong women. It’s been such a pleasure to spend time with them,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anna Tran lives in the Midwest area of Mingenew. (Supplied: Martine Perret)<\/p>\n
Initially, Ms Perret planned to photograph six women, but her ambition quickly grew to include 21 portraits.<\/p>\n
“We wanted to highlight women from different places,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It was really important to showcase the diversity we have here in terms of stories and to show how important women are.”<\/p>\n
Stuck in the mud<\/p>\n
One of the shoots that stuck out to Ms Perret was with Giulia Censi on the Yarra Yarra Salt Lake.<\/p>\n
The idea was for the portrait to symbolise her move from Italy to Australia, and capture a story of travel, resilience and new beginnings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Giulia Censi moved from Italy to Marchagee, 236km north-east of Perth. (Supplied: Martine Perret)<\/p>\n
“She was beautifully dressed and had these beautiful shoes and then all of a sudden, her feet sank into the mud,” Ms Perret said.<\/p>\n
“I was really apologetic and thought we would have to stop the shoot, but Giulia just kicked off her shoes and continued barefoot.<\/p>\n
“We had the biggest laugh. It was a really funny shoot.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Madeline Anderson lives 170km north-east of Perth in Moora. (Supplied: Martine Perret)<\/p>\n
Another particularly memorable portrait session was with Madeline Anderson in Dandaragan.<\/p>\n
Before the shoot, Ms Anderson asked permission from her grandfather to use white ash, which was a culturally significant element she wanted to incorporate.<\/p>\n
“It became spiritual, and I appreciated her revealing this and for letting me be involved,” Ms Perret said.<\/p>\n
She said the openness and trust shown by the women made the project rewarding.<\/p>\n
“I’m super grateful that these women were willing to reveal their stories to me. It’s always such a privilege and honour to be trusted.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nyree-Jane Taylor lives in Piawaning, 155km north-east of Perth. (Supplied: Martine Perret)<\/p>\n
A big celebration of women<\/p>\n
Ms Perret’s next project will also highlight the stories of rural women.<\/p>\n
The Geraldton-based project will be called Saltwater Women.<\/p>\n
“It’s early days, so I can’t share too much, but it’s a work in progress,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Martine Perret shooting in the Midwest. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Her end goal is to bring Saltwater Women and Women of the Hinterland together for a major exhibition.<\/p>\n
“I’m crossing my fingers that we can showcase a big celebration of women in a couple of years,” Ms Perret said.<\/p>\n
Women of the Hinterland was completed as part of a North Midlands Project residency and is on display at the Morawa Arts and Cultural Centre until November 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World-renowned photographer Martine Perret has turned her lens to Western Australia’s Midwest, bringing to life the stories of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,158115,158116,44,8212,9367,31132,6902,45,158114],"class_list":["post-272074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-martine-perret","tag-midwest","tag-news","tag-photography","tag-rural-women","tag-un","tag-united-nations","tag-wa-news","tag-woman-of-the-hinterland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}