Admina November 10, 2024

We’re thrilled to introduce Karen Waller, our featured photographer for 2026 Women in Photography’s ICM Photography Retreat in South Australia! 📸 Karen is an Adelaide-based photographer and artist with a deep connection to South Australia’s natural landscapes and a creative journey shaped by her rural upbringing. Originally trained in visual art with a focus on painting, Karen transitioned to photography, infusing her images with the painterly sensibility that continues to influence her distinctive style.

Karen’s work spans a variety of subjects, from evocative portraits to immersive landscapes and aerial shots, each piece exploring contrasts like strength and vulnerability. Her portraiture brings an emotive depth that invites viewers to connect with her subjects on a human level, while her landscapes reflect a nuanced appreciation for beauty that challenges conventional aesthetics. With themes of fragility, loss, and resilience central to her creative process, Karen captures both the visible and the unseen in ways that engage and challenge the viewer.

Karen’s accomplishments are as impressive as they are inspiring. She has been awarded the title of South Australian AIPP Epson Portrait Photographer of the Year multiple times and has received international recognition, including winning the Portrait Story Category at the International Portrait Photographer of the Year in 2022 and the People Category in Capture Magazine’s Mono Awards. Most recently, Karen earned the Print Photographer of the Year 2023 at the Australian Photographic Prize.

Join us at the ICM Photography Retreat for an incredible opportunity to learn from Karen’s expertise and immerse yourself in her unique approach, where photography transforms into a profound exploration of light, shadow, and storytelling. To get a taste of Karen’s captivating style, take a look at a selection of her beautiful ICM images below! 📷✨

Single calla lily – single capture and long exposure. A single studio light and ICM technique.
Single calla lily – single capture and long exposure. A single studio light and ICM technique.
Ginkgo leaves – single capture and long exposure. A single studio light and ICM technique.
Single calla lily – single capture and long exposure. A single studio light and ICM technique.
Single Poppy – single capture and long exposure. A single studio light and ICM technique used to create the image.
Two calla liilies – single capture and long exposure. A single studio light and ICM technique.
Succulant – single capture using ICM technique and available light.

Record of Achievements

  • 2012 – 2022 Member of the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers 
  • 2021 – Exhibition of Portraits from Ethiopia
  • 2020 – Travelled to Ethiopia to photograph the people in remote villages in the Omo Valley, Southern Ethiopia
  • 2019 – Commissioned by AJ & PA McBride Ltd to photograph South Australian properties for centenary book ‘Faraway, 100 Years of Wool’ by author Kristin Weidenbach
  • AIPP SA Portrait Photographer of the Year in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2017
  • 2017 – Australian Institute of Professional Photography, Master of Photography
  • 2015 – AIPP volunteer photographer for the Reflections Project in which WW11 Veterans nationwide were photographed for the National War Memorial archives 
  • 2014 – Robyn Stewart Award for Creative Excellence

Published

  • McBride History
  • Capture Magazine – The Annual 2020 & 2021
  • The Guardian
  • Advertiser
  • Australian Photography Magazine
  • Outback Magazine – RM Williams
  • Australian Camera Magazine