Every picture is worth a thousand words.

And that’s exactly what multi award-winning Canberra photographer Jeremy Byrnes aims to do with his current project, which focuses on the community’s “elders”.

Through WISE, Byrnes will photograph about 50 people of the “older generation” in the Canberra community for an exhibition that will run at The Front Gallery and Café in Lyneham in September 2025.

The photographs will be exhibited – and given to the subject once the exhibition closes – and the prints will be published in a book.

“The catalyst behind doing the project is I love photographing old people,” Byrnes said.

He said another inspiration was the previous owner of the house he and his wife, Katie Kolenberg, bought in Macquarie three years ago.

“The woman that owned it, she lived there for 50 years by herself, she passed away at the start of this year,” Byrnes said.

“She didn’t have any family; she didn’t have any children, and she never got married. She developed dementia and then she passed away.”

Byrnes said the woman (who is not included in the exhibition) had an “amazing life” and “brilliant career”, including being the head of maternity at Canberra Hospital, that had been forgotten.

He said the images in the WISE exhibition would be accompanied by videos and photographs.

“The voices and moving images would be another layer,” he said.

Byrnes said everyone had a story to tell and something interesting to say.

“Even the woman that I photographed a few weeks ago, she was like ‘I don’t have any stories to really tell’ and then I asked her about the gem on her neck ‘Oh this old thing, it’s been passed through eight generations in my family’,” he said.

“So, I think everyone has something, but they just don’t think it’s important enough to share. I think that’s really important,” Byrnes said.

“I want all the photos to be a reflection of the character I’m photographing, as opposed to it being a reflection of me. I’ll bring my expertise, but I want them to bring their personality.”

“Anyone can apply. I want everyone.”

Originally from Wagga Wagga, Byrnes has been a photographer for 30 years, including 20 in Sydney – he moved to Canberra in 2012.

Individuals or couples interested in having their portrait taken as part of the project can visit heartstoryphotography.com.au/wise

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