Jessica Hromas

- Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your photography practise?

- Yeah, so my photography started, I went to art school after finishing school, I went to COFA. And I just found myself being more and more drawn to the photography subjects, and spending a lot of time in the dark room. And I went to art school thinking I'd be an artist and sort of work, and then I got to the realisation that, oh gosh, what really am I gonna do to make a living? And then I was enjoying photography so much. I thought, oh, photo journalism, that's a thing, maybe I could do that. And I was lucky enough that when I contacted the papers back then they just said, "All right, yeah, start, do a shift tomorrow." And that was the beginning of my photography-working career really. And I've been lucky enough to... Yeah, remained gainfully employed by some main, real fluke and work for Fairfax for a long, long time, now nine. I moved to Hong Kong with the family and started freelancing there. And I had sort of close working relationship with Getty, and tapped into the arts community in Hong Kong and then moved back to Sydney, and continued to freelance. I spent nine months working as the picture editor for The Guardian. I took a mat leave role where, which was fabulous and sort of still have a relationship with The Guardian and work for them from time to time.

- Yeah, so pretty amazing career path.

- Yeah, and I've been really lucky in that, and Fairfax, I sort of moved around a bit. So I started as a freelancer and then got a role as a photographer at the Fin review, and then I took a role as a photographer with the SMH, a staff photographer with the SMH. I got to picture a little bit for the SMH, which is fun, including things like I was picture editing because the picture editor was away at the time during the referendum for independence in East Timor and Jason South, a photographer was on the ground for Fairfax. Yeah, it was pretty amazing. And then I went to work as a photographer for the Financial Review magazine. And then I was also the picture editor for the Fairfax business publications which is the centre of the American Financial Review newspaper. And then back then there was a whole raft of business publications. So we had a department about 20 sort of photographers working on the country. Yeah.

- [Tara] Incredible.

- Yeah.

- But you look at your portfolio and you've shot photos of almost everyone. There's so many well-named faces in there, that's pretty amazing.

- Yeah. Look at some... It is a career which takes you to some interesting places in corners and yeah. Now I've been very fortunate to sort of, yeah.

- Any standouts of people you've had behind your lens, like one, no, that like, oh, this is my hero, or like...

- It's funny actually people ask me about, you know, what's the best sort of photo assignment or the most person or what have you, and look, there's lots of great, but I would have to say that photographing and having the opportunity to photograph first nations people is probably really been the highlight because there's just so much to learn. And there's this whole other culture which is right here, which is so vastly different from, I guess, you know, the culture that we sort of, well, more familiar with. And so, for me that is a very rewarding experience. Really special.

- Yeah. An important one to tell as well and document for everyone.

- Yeah.

- What about, could you tell us a bit about your finalist work, Mark and Saskia call-off.

- Oh yeah. Yeah. So I had actually been working for the SMH that day and I had a bit of time sort of left at the end of, I guess my shift, and I have an underwater camera housing and I thought, gosh, I'm going to dive into the sea and just see what I can come up with. And Sydney was in a lockdown situation, and they'd had a period where people weren't allowed to really even utilise or swim at the beach, and then it sort of loosened a bit and you could sort of quickly duck down and swim but you were not to loiter on the sand or anything. But if you people had been swimming their dogs off the boat ramp there. And so I sort of, yeah, I dived in there and started photographing and it sort of was a funny thing cause there's been a lot of underwater photography, you know, some really great stuff, but yeah, it's become very popular because it's so much fun. And, but I sort of had this thing which is like, oh, dogs and dogs swimming. No one's really been doing this little niche bit of Sydney. It was a funny little moment which I think photographers have from time to time where they feel like, oh, I feel like I'm sort of, you know, a smaller little niche thing as it is felt that I had sort of, was sort of doing something that was just a bit different at the time. And yeah, Mark and Saskia really caught my eye and just sort of were photogenic and now we're, you know, lovely enough to sort of say, yeah, fine, you know, let's do some pictures. And so we, you know, swimming around doing some shots and yeah. I guess it's just hopefully, just a really joyous sort of moment. And that whole sort of thing I think through this lockdown and pandemic, there's been a lot of grief for a lot of people. But there's also been the elements of people being sort of reminded of the beautiful parts of life and sort of stripping things back to basics, children being able to ride their bicycles down the middle of roads that were normally, you know, thoroughfares with traffic and people turning to their dogs for the way that, you know, that I haven't for a long time. I too purchase the four legged, fluffy COVID baby. So yeah, so that was sort of, it really, it's a funny, well actually there's a funny story to this because when you're in the water with an underwater housing, you do not have pen and paper and I'm not organised enough to have a sort of a smartwatch where you could listen, you know, record or type someone's name in. And so I had sort of, oh, what's her name? Mark. What's the dog's name Saskia. Yeah, great. And it wasn't till I got out of the water and was looking at the pictures and I'm like, oh, I think that one's good. Oh, I'm great. It's sharp.

- [Tara] Yeah.

- There is a thing with underwater photography where, you know, I mean I'm often just trying not to drown, So, wow. You know, and perhaps a little bit more of that almost darkroom experience of like, oh, oh look, there's a lot of, particularly in the surf where you've got sort of waves and so forth, there's that I guess, you know, accidental sort of stuff that goes on which is sort of fun. And so yeah, so I'm like, oh, this is a really good shot. And then it was like, oh, you know, I presented them to the SMH and they were like, yeah, great, but we'd like to speak to this man, what's his surname? So I ended up doing the weirdest thing and I went and put a little, like a poster queue down by the fibre by the boat ramp there thinking, look, I'm sure he's a local and he probably comes here, you know, cause his dog enjoyed this. So hopefully he'll see this and he'll respond. And he did. But the funny thing was that he called Nick Moir, my colleague at the SMH, probably because, you know, he's a very, well-known, he is the chief photographer at the Herald and perhaps he just sort of felt, she said she was working for the Herald.

- [Tara] I'm gonna .

- So Nick called me and said, oh, this guy got in. And I got his poster you put down and I'm like, anyway. So we got in contact like that and yeah.

- Cool. Awesome.

- Yeah. It's really nice in the exhibition and you touched on it as well, like it's a joyous moment and you're when you come and see the show and you've probably seen it. It really is a moment of relief. You know, it's some darker themes in there that when you look at and it just makes you smile as well. Like it's so texturally rich that you're first, you look at it and you just smile and feel that joy and that the beach, but then you start looking at those textures of the water and the dog's fair and it's just like incredible.

- Oh, thank you. Thanks. Yeah. Funny when I think I just finished art school and I volunteered to do some work at the art gallery of new South Wales. And I was really lucky that while I was volunteering to sort of help out in the photographic department there, Elliot Erwitt was having a show called, I think it's to the dogs. Cause he's a Magnum photographer who's famous for his documentary on dogs. And also his images of a lot of sort of humour in them, and they're upbeat and I think he was one of the first sort of Magnum photographers. He wasn't sort of just, sort of doing war and distress and everything. And he actually I think copped initially quite a bit of flack for sort of, you know, not you're not a serious photographer because we're not sort of dealing with those subjects. But anyway, when he was in Sydney and having his show hung there, he wanted to do some photography around Sydney, and he wanted someone to assist him. And so I was like, oh yes. So I was very lucky to spend a couple of days working with the master.

- [Tara] That's awesome.

- Yeah. And it's a funny thing too. And maybe it's that thing that when you drive, I dunno, a yellow V dub, you start seeing yellow V dubs. Everywhere we went we were sort of like dogs doing some really weird incredible things.

- [Tara] Where the God at?

- It's like three old men sitting at a table and there's the old dog who's sort of like, you know, in tuned to the conversation, what sort of thing?

- That's amazing. And you've got a distinction award as well for your work.

- I was pretty blown away by that. Yeah.

- And particularly I keep seeing the Instagram feed of images coming through and just thinking, that's amazing. Where this such a beautiful sort of depth of images there. There's one, two from the bush fires when I was picture editing at The Guardian, we certainly ran that image of the young girl on the boat.

- Yes. The Alison Maryanne line.

- Yeah, such a powerful image, for me that was a real standout of all the incredible strong images coming, you know, harrowing images coming from the bush fires. But, I mean, I almost tear up when I think back, I covered the bush fires too, and it's just, was so awful.

- We did... I'm not sure if he saw our sort of a panel that we had at the start of the show and we had sort of Mike Bauers and Christine...

- Yeah. Yeah, I listened into that. Mike is obviously a photographer for the guidance.

- [Tara] Yeah.

- So I know I've worked alongside Mike for a very long time. So when I was picture editor at the Fin review, he was picture editor at the SMH numb. So we have a very long working history back in and I... And actually I was picture editing when he took that incredible photo where he was on the highway down South, and this is when the fire literally jumped the highway and there's a shop with the police car, and then these huge sort of flames throwing up behind him. And he does tell a very sort of funny story and that everyone just jumped in their cars and had to get the hell out of there as possible. And he said, "He was the police officer.

- That's right. This is a surreal, I'm breaking the speed limit and I'm chasing them. Yeah. But the bit that really, I think I really check up about is for me when I was covering the fires, this sense of are we witnessing a tipping point? Is this a tipping point? You know, and hearing of parts of Kangaroo Island that were totally burnt out. And yet that is the only habitat where that species lives. It's just really scary. And, you know, there is a lot of work being done on what the effects of the fires have been, but it's really heartbreaking and hopefully we don't see the likes of that again.

- Yeah. And it's still ongoing. The rebuild on the human side, but nature even is, you know, crazy. It's still only just the beginnings of, in a lot of those areas.

- Oh and look, I guess with some of them, they will never be the same. They won't be a change landscape forever.

- Yeah. One of the works in the show is of the lady's dad. And that's, I think he's named Al Carter as well, where he's a biologist in the whole, his whole property got burnt out. He'd just had it as far as, but his way of rebuilding and it's a beautiful little SAR, I'll send it to you, he just sort of sat and he started to count the birds coming back one by one. So he got out his little notebook and there's this beautiful handwritten list as he starts to list the birds.

- Beautiful.

- I'll send you, it's a really, his daughter wrote an article about it. He's the subject in one of the photos. So I sort of dug a bit deeper, but it gave me a little like tiny glimmer of hope that, you know, nature is repairing itself. It may never be the same, but.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah. It's pretty hard time for a lot of the photographers that cover that as well. That emotional toll on everyone.

- Oh yeah. And, but I guess you know as Mike pointed out, as a photographer, well, you know, I mean my house wasn't burned down, I sort of really didn't live through and we sort of get to, you know, I got to drive.

- You got time.

- , Sydney. But yeah. Look, the thing is it's that the cities, the climate change is the big, you know, it's the elephant in the room and it will affect all of us in some way or other.

- Already it's. I don't know of anyone that's not affected. What do you think? Like you're already such an accomplished photographer. What does being part of the prize mean for you?

- Oh, it's a huge kudos. I was really, yeah. You know, I'm chuffed, I'm so chuffed to be, to be part of it. Yeah. It's the lovely acknowledgement. I think the thing with judging works like a body of work, like this is, you know, how do you say that one image is better than another when they've totally different subject matter? Of course it's all very subjective, but it's very, yeah. It's really humbling and I feel very honoured to be included definitely. Particularly, you know, it's just so many fabulous works in there, so yeah. Really chuffed.

- Yeah. And a special year sort of a themed year as well.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely. And we've already got one of your works in our collection here. A 1998 portrait of Dame Hammond Mitchell I saw.

- Yeah. Yeah. That goes quite a way back. I did a series of portraits of elders for Hammond group, and I guess it was just sort of looking at, yeah. Framing elders in a different sort of way, but obvious issues of a trailblazer and pretty amazing woman. I'm always really chuffed and thrilled, particularly, you know, working a lot in business, sort of like a business and political elite to photograph women who have, you know, have got to where they are, because there are huge amount of barriers still in so many fields. So yeah. Even yours included, you know?

- Yeah. Yeah.

- I have such an amazing career and photo journalism.

- So that's always, does always feel really nice to sort of help, to feel like you're highlighting that and presenting them in the best light.

- So you have, I mean, you said you've got to travel a bit, but how have locked downs and sort of changes in the world affected your practise do you think? I guess professionally and personally with your photography? Yeah. Well, I started at The Guardian before basically the pandemic, I've took this sort of mat mat leave role. And literally I guess had to sort of say to all my freelance clients, hey, you're all fabulous, but I'm going off to full-time job now. So, you know, hopefully I'll see you on the other side sort of thing. And while it was at the guardian, it was quite incredible. I was sitting on my desk was on the international pod and basically they started a blog on the pandemic when it broke in Wu Han and I was together, photo galleries of you know, the deserted streets and it was quite incredible to sort of I guess, big picture editing. And it was sort of funny because there was one woman on the international desk, was like, oh my gosh, this is bigger than Ben Hur. And everyone I think was sort of like, she's overreacting a bit, she's sort of gone down a rabbit hole for everybody else. And you know, this is going to be bigger than Ben Hur and they knock on effect of all of this is going to be so huge. And she was right. But eventually my nine months came to an end and basically I went to start my freelance business again at the first sort of lockdown in Sydney. I sort of thought, wow, this is this, this is doesn't exactly feel like really great timing to jump back into being a freelancer. I also have my mum, so I had this sort of, well, not that it's only mothers doing homeschooling, but my husband and I had two kids to homeschool. So perhaps it was like, oh, maybe I need to spend a bit of time at home. But yeah, I called the Herald who I'd worked for before and Mag sort of said to me, oh now we've cut our shifts right back. And I'm like, okay. And then I think a day later, the next day she called me and said, can you work? And notice what I'm thinking? Yes. Which was really sweet. And even, I think the thing with that sort of stuff is like psychologically, you know, it was just so reassuring to sort of feel like, oh my gosh, I can work again because yeah. It was quite scary to try and sort of resurrect my freelance career in that sort of mode. And I used to travel up to Hong Kong once a year to work on the big art Basel show that they have up there, but that was cancelled and then obviously travel wasn't possible. So that sort of put an end to that. And yeah. But then this last locked down, I feel like I was really fortunate. I picked up, I did a bit of work in sort of TV and I think the film and TV industry in this last lockdown seemed to be one of the areas that just sort of charged ahead. So yeah. But yeah. And that's the thing, I mean, when you're working you just feel so grateful because I've got so many people, I have not been able to work. It's been really tough in the arts industry. I just think, you know, actors, oh my gosh. You know the theatre.

- So much everything.

- So many businesses.

- Yeah, yeah, it unknown as well of how long it lasts for, we don't, you know. And it's that we don't know. What about, can you tell us about a lot of people always ask about cameras and technical equipment. So what is your selected equipment that you use?

- Well, I've been with cannon for a while. I guess people sort of have often stick to a brand for probably the most practical and sort of financial sort of sense to sort of stick with one sort of brand so that you can interchange lenses and all of that. Yes I use Canon and I have this lovely underwater housing that I used for a shot of Saskia and Mark Tesco. But yeah, it's funny you know, I think with technology, look, I work in an industry where you do have to keep abreast of things. It's sort of competitive particularly news, there's the essence is always on quick turnaround. I'm doing, you know, like the 24 hour news cycle where everyone's sort of a slave to it. But saying that, you know, I think people sometimes are like, oh, you know mobile phones are getting so good. You know, out of work soon. And I'm, I've never really felt that threatened by that sort of thing because at the end of the day, someone might shoot the most amazing sequence of pictures with their mobile phone and that's great. But I really think it comes down to ideas. It comes down to a lot more than, you know, I think the equipment is the other tools to do the job. But that's sort of really, really, really, you know. And then saying that some of the most beautiful images can be taken on, you know, plastic cameras that leave light and have that accidental, you know, . So yeah, horses because it's, you know.

- Yeah. What about any tips for aspiring photographers? My tips would be, you really just have to get out there and take a lot of images. I do think there's a little bit with photography. Look, there are people that are just, who are amazingly talented and you feel like they could just, I mean, dive, just take a quick shot. But saying that I actually, you know, like I work with, you know, and know a lot of really amazing photographers, but to be honest, I think a lot of it just comes down to a lot of, you know, like most things in life, old fashion, hard work and photographing a lot, I've sort of, I've often thought that perhaps it's a little bit like playing an instrument where, you know, if you don't play for a long time you become a bit stale and rusty and you probably need to get back and do your scales. So I would say, take lots of images, don't make mistakes, sometimes from mistakes come the best things. So be bold, be brave and light. Talk about life.

- We're pretty lucky here in Australia with our light.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. And don't, and be bold. Don't let people say that you, you know, I remember when I started a career sort of saying that to a photographer, you know, I wanted to sort of get into photo journalism and get into the papers. And they said, oh, you're not, you'll never be able to do that. You've missed your sort of thing because they don't do interns anymore or whatever. And I think it's just, like anything, you just have to really, if you want it enough and you work hard enough, you'll get it.

- Excellent advice. What about photographers or artists in general that you look up to or that inspire you?

- I really love the work of Tracy Moffitt. She's just wonderfully clever. I love the humour in her work. She's really inspiring. And then I think it's quite remarkable how she's chosen not to be pigeon-holed as something. So, yeah, I think she's really amazing. Been looking at Adam Ferguson's work. It's really lovely. Kate Garrity is amazing, I really admire, she's been a trailblazer I think, particularly for women in our industry, she's pretty amazing. But there's so many, Nick Moir's, you know, Storm Chasers, he's got lovely work, but there's so many contemporary if I guess, photojournalists who are really things were coming at Meyer.

- What about, have you got a conscious memory of the first spider you ever took.

- I don't really know about number one photo.

- Or even remembering a photo that you took early on? I took quite a few photos. I went back to my daddy's check and we went back to Czechoslovakia when her veil had taken over and it was no longer communist, and it was quite bleak still and felt very strange. When we went there you couldn't buy a postcard in Prague. And if you wanted food, you needed to know that you would queue for bread and milk on certain days. And it was quite sort of bleak. And yeah, I took quite a few photos when I was sort of there. That sort of, yeah. I guess I remember a lot of images from art school. And there was perhaps I look back on some of them and there was a freedom there, you know, I did some weird things like projected, my younger sister was sort of my mousse.

- An eighth grade model.

- Yeah. Yeah. She was my house model and I used to sort of bribe her with things like, she didn't have a driver's licence and I did, so I'd sort of, you know, she, if she, you know, the things I made her do. Strip naked and lie on rocks and projected sort of images and things onto her back. Yeah. So I think I painted her blue. So yeah.

- Shout out to her sister's patience. It's awesome.

- She was very good to me.

- What about a dream subject? If you could get anyone in front of the camera, anywhere, anyone in the world, who would you like to take a photo of?

- Look, I'm quite interested in politics and politicians. Gosh, just off the top of my head I watched that four corners on Angler Merkel.

- Yeah.

- Yeah. And I just thought, wow. I mean, she's pretty amazing. And someone who's really sort of shaped history, she would be pretty amazing to photograph.

- Yeah.

- Strong women.

- Yeah. She'd be pretty amazing to get a seat at the table. Who else? Yeah. You know, sometimes the infamous people have sort of interesting.

- Yeah.

- When I was working for the Herald, I worked on the Ivan Milat sort of story and ended up having afternoon tea one day, morning tea with his brother in his house and photographed him. He was the one who always maintained his father's innocence.

- [Tara] Incredible.

- I don't know lots of people.

- I feel like we could talk to you forever, but we've limited time of all the star is, it's amazing. What about any shout outs or thank you, is along your career path, family, well your sister to start with being painted blue and naked and being bribed for lifts.

- Yeah. Well, I think everyone has to take their parents first and foremost. Thanks to them. I went to quite alternate sort of schools where I guess the arts were very much sort of encouraged and which probably led me to sort of go to art school as a starting point. So yeah. And then, I guess you know, shout outs to, well at the moment, you know, I do some work for The Guardian, and the picture editor there is Kaleo, and I do some work for the SMH, and the picture editor there is Max King. So both, you know, strong women who really pushing and advocating for really great photo journalism and portraiture. So yeah, I feel lucky to have relationships with both of them in a working capacity. So yeah, but other people, being lucky enough to work with Lorena Allum, who's the Aboriginal editor at The Guardian. She's done amazing work. She won a sort of a history award. And I think I've walked clear award for the work she did with the University of Newcastle mapping where all the massacre sites are in Australia and from work with her. I did a project with her in Maury about how outrageously expensive the Maury swimming pool is. So much so that it means that a lot of first nations, families cannot afford to take the family to the pool. And that has a history because that was a town that was segregated and Aboriginal people could not swim in the pool for the colour of their skin. So it feels like history repeating itself. Because of that assignment I went back to Maury and did a series of portraits with the elders there. And I guess there's a lot been done on stolen. You know, people were aware of stolen generation, but I guess the segregated generation is such a huge thing. So most Aboriginal people in this country who were over 55, lived through some pretty horrific segregation which is just, you know, so I'm fathomable. But it's not ancient history. It happened to...

- It's our history. It's our history who are walking around today, who lived lived through that.

- And it's not documented. It's not well-known, like most people would be shocked to hear that I think. Like, well, their personal stories are so shocking, so shocking. But it's a tricky one because people are like, well, you know, don't sort of dwell on the negative, look at the positive. But for me again, I guess, you know, speaking to, and I sort of did all the interviews with that sort of second time I went to Maury with elders, just asking them about their childhoods and their memories. And I guess the thing is that site, they didn't come to sort of, you know, whatever I went to them to say, I wanna learn about what happened to you, and for some people it was the first time they had spoken to anyone from the media. And I felt, I mean, obviously they, you know, I'm always only photographing and speaking to people that were up for it. But I think they were sort of, you know, there was a sense of, well, oh, wow, you're interested in my story. I'm like, yeah, this is part of our history. This is a huge thing. This is what happened and people should know about it. And I think it's just, I guess, for anybody, if something terrible happens to you, it's just acknowledging it, just to say okay, apologise

- And as well, if your voice has been quietened for so long, you need that invitation to tell your story. If it's been squashed down and quiet and so long, they need someone to say, tell us your story.

- Yeah. Yeah. Well the thing with the outbreak of COVID in, well Kenya was really, you know, as indigenous Aboriginal eldest pointed out to me, it was brought about by the really poor housing conditions there. And of course that all harks back to history, having your land and your land stolen from you and the knock-on effect of all of that. And so the virus just sort of, I guess, was sort of, you know, I guess it just exposed all those things that were problems there originally. And so, you know, I guess from negative stuff sometimes good comes. So hopefully, you know, that is a real wake up call, but that there needs to be some money spent on decent housing so that people aren't living in such cramped difficult situations.

- Yeah. I mean that privilege that's taken for granted as well with some of the policies, like, oh, self isolate or, you know.

- Oh, and the thing with isolating, I mean, I drove back from Kenya and I thought, gosh, I've been in an area, I was really, really careful, but I thought I better get tested and then come home. And I got tested in Dubbo and I thought I'd get the result. My colleague had got tested. I was bringing up, they turned it around in four hours. I was like, okay, great, I'll get tested. And now I should get it back by the time I'm back in Sydney, but I didn't get it back in time. So I tried to isolate from my family and my young kids. And it was, try and isolate from a seven-year-old kid who you haven't seen for a week. It's just, is impossible. You know, it really made me feel for people in rural Kenya trying to isolate from your family. It was just so hard.

- Important stories. Well this is the end of it, but what would your parting words of wisdom be? They can be artistic, life philosophy, whatever you wanna end on. Being so giving and generous.

- If you're a budding photographer, get out there, take photos, be kind and think about, yeah. The grasping for words now. I think for documentary photography, portraiture, I think is sort of come, you know, it's come a long way and I guess the messaging is really important. What is the messaging that you're giving, really give that some consideration because I guess with social media and so forth, you know, things can travel like wildfire and, you know, I think it's more important to do the right thing and the honourable thing and do what you think... And that may mean that you don't necessarily get the best picture, but make sure you're working with, you know, to be ethical in what you're doing. Try and... Be ethical and respectful. Just try and keep that there. Yeah.