Passion for photos with a message

Nikki Sorbello | 27th November 2009

Nigel Brennan’s global photographs captured bleak conditions.

NIGEL Brennan went to Somalia last year with his eyes open — knowing he was entering tough territory, but compelled to make a difference.

“He wanted to show the world what was happening. The only way to change it is to see it,” family friend Bec Hutchins told the NewsMail in July.

Nigel worked for the NewsMail as a photographer for 12 months, but it was never going to be anything more than a stopover on his way to continuing his passion for photographing the world’s most down-trodden citizens — something he did before his time in Bundaberg.

Before moving to Moore Park in 2007, Nigel spent much time in Ethiopia, where he photographed acclaimed doctor Catherine Hamlin at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.

Saint Catherine was one of the first inductees at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra and remains there today.

Finishing at the NewsMail in January 2008, Nigel went overseas to again pursue his passion for photographing war-torn and developing world countries, with the intention of working as a freelance photographer in India or Pakistan, but also hoping to cover the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.

His travels led him to Scotland, where he spent time living and working on an estate on the West Coast, enjoying some outdoors’ work and a break from newspapers.

He wanted to work in Afghanistan as an embedded photographer who worked alongside the army.

Upon completion of his degree at Griffith University, he produced one of his most renowned works, The Crosses.

The photographs depict the many shrines to loved ones who had lost their lives on the nation’s roads and were picked up by NRMA Magazine as a part of a road safety campaign.