Greg Woodward

Greg Woodward is a legendary photographer from a legendary era. Known best as a documentary style surf photographer and writer, from 1966 to 1974 he photographed the beaches of Scarborough and Trigg around Perth, Mandurah and Cape Naturaliste, sending photos and articles to a surf magazine called ‘Surf International’.

Greg was drafted to do two years of National Service in the Army in 1968. During leave in Queensland, he met the Torquay surfing crew after visiting Bells Beach, Coolangatta and Noosa Heads where he saw great surf and beach breaks. After discharging in 1970, Greg returned to Melbourne to study photography. On weekends he hitchhiked to Torquay to surf and spend time with the Torquay crew.

Returning to Perth in 1971, Greg began photographing around the beaches, focusing on documentary pics and newspaper work. Greg also worked for the Independent Newspaper for six months. In 1974, Greg began work as a photographer at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. He worked on exhibition catalogues and recorded the art and exhibitions for their files, eventually retiring in 2007. Greg surfed for most of his life, with a passion for the beach and ocean. He only stopped surfing in 1982 due to poor health.

Artist Statement:

The cameras I used during 1966-1980 were a 35mm ‘Practica’ and a 35mm ‘Pentax’ Spotmatic - with a 180mm telephoto lens. All of the surfing photos were taken on the ‘Practica’ with a 400 mm telephoto lens. The ‘Nikon’ equipment of the time was better quality but my budget was unable to cope with the cost.

The photos were taken on 35mm black and white film and processed in the darkroom, as were the original prints. I scanned the negatives at a later date to make digital files. For my 2017 exhibition I made a set of prints using a digital printer.

I used a tripod with the 400mm telephoto lens which was designed for movie cameras (called a ‘miller head’) which allowed a smooth movement when following the surfers across a wave. I also used an orange filter on the telephoto lens (with black and white film) which darkened the sea and the sky and gave a strong contrast between the wave and the surfer.

Creating black and white print quality in the darkroom was important in the early days as photoshop was not yet invented, so you spent a lot of time in the darkroom under an orange light, perfecting the tonal value of the prints.