Ellie Cole AM (b. 1991), swimming champion, is Australia's most decorated female Paralympian. Diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in her right leg, at age three she underwent surgery to amputate the limb above the knee. Her parents enrolled her in swimming lessons to help with her rehabilitation. She was fifteen when she competed in the World Championships for the first time, winning a silver medal. Having qualified for the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008, she had few expectations other than to 'have a little bit of fun', but instead won three medals. At the Paralympics in London in 2012, she won four gold and two bronze medals. In 2016 – having recovered from two shoulder reconstructions and having won three world titles – she won six medals at the Paralympics in Rio. Her two Paralympic medals in Tokyo in 2021 bring her tally to seventeen.
Wylie's Baths in Coogee is the dramatic backdrop for Peter Brew-Bevan's 2016 portrait of Cole. Photographed for an article about Australian women competing in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio for Marie Claire magazine, Cole's portrait appeared again in 2020 to coincide with the launch of Rising Phoenix, a Netflix documentary profiling six athletes who competed at the 2012 Paralympics.
Purchased with funds provided by the Annual Appeal for Contemporary Australian Photography 2021
© Peter Brew-Bevan
Ellie Cole, by Peter Brew-Bevan, 2016, printed 2021. This work is a photographic portrait of Ellie Cole OAM, Australia’s most decorated Paralympian swimmer. The printed work measures 150 cm wide and 108 cm tall and is presented with a white border in a simple black wooden frame. Cole is pictured beside the ocean seated atop an Australian flag draped over a large dark boulder which sits atop a mass of other cliffside rocks. It is dusk, with wispy peach-tinted clouds blending into the pale blue sky behind her. The photograph has been colour-graded warmly and with a dramatic dark cast so the dark blue of the Australian flag appears almost black.
Cole is positioned on the left half of the frame facing the camera. Her left leg is tucked up close to her body, her knee near her shoulder, with her left arm extended behind it, her hand resting on her foot. Her right leg, a prosthetic leg made from charcoal coloured carbon fibre and silver steel, is outstretched beneath her, its shiny surface reflecting the light. Her artificial foot, made from a pale skin-like material with some scuffing around the toes, rests on another lower rock. Her right arm is extended to her right, supporting her on the rock, her hand open on the flag beneath her. The 7-pointed Federation Star is visible below her prosthetic leg.
She looks to camera with a neutral expression, her head slightly tilted to her left. Her eyes squint slightly into the dying sunlight and her lips are parted and raised in the beginnings of a smile revealing her white teeth. Her brown hair is wet and she is wearing a black one- piece Speedo swimsuit. The soft sunset light illuminates her smooth skin, highlighting her muscular build.
To the left of Cole is the ocean, deep blue-black with mild choppy waves. A boat sits on the far horizon barely visible in the distance. The boulders she is sitting on continue across the width of the photograph, dominating the frame. The rocks are smoothed with age, some dotted with white lichen and small crustacea. At the top-right of the frame a wooden and metal frame structure ascends from the rocks and extends out of the frame.
Audio description written and voiced by Kate Matthews
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
For me, swimming was particularly special because it was the only sport that I could participate in as a kid where I could take my prosthetic leg off, jump in the water, and I could be the same as all the other kids.
Ellie Cole on the freedom of the pool and being photographed by Peter Brew-Bevan.
