biography
“I love what I am doing and just want to keep doing it”
— Steve McCurry. Burn Magazine
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Who is Jimmy?
Jimmy specialises in working with diverse communities, including migrant, refugee and Indigenous communities. He has close to 20 years of experience in the creative, business and government sectors with a particularly strong focus on portraiture, photography and videography.
He is an honours graduate from the Sydney College of the Arts in 1997 and has exhibited in the Archibald Prize in 2002 at the Art Gallery of NSW and the Mosman Art Prize in 2003. Most recently Jimmy had one of his photographic portraits in the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023 at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
Bora, Anthony Mundine,Oil on canvasby Jimmy Widders HuntArchibald Prize Finalist 2002
Career
Early work
- In 2007, he combined his creativity and business experience to start his own company, Film Biographies Australia (FBA). FBA specialises in developing engaging videos, photographic content and portraiture. Jimmy manages all aspects of the products including: Active listening
- Script development Discussion and interview guides
- Interviewing Location and filming Recording audio Capturing aerial drone footage Post production editing and audio Colour correcting
- Notably his videos and photos have been used in national campaigns, television programs such as 7:30 and Australian Story on the ABC and television commercials and educational spots on SBS and NITV. He has created digital content for various clients including the highly successful NSW Police ‘Not Our Way’ Campaign and filmed and edited footage that accompanied the successful world heritage listing of Koongarra within Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. Other clients include Qantas, Australia Post, Cancer Council, Hearing Australia, NDIS, NBN, UoN, UNSW, NSW Government COVID TV commercials, NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages, Lendlease, Westfield and Scentre Group, Reconciliation Australia, Australian Human Rights Commission and Prime Minister and Cabinet.
- His photos have been used in multiple publications including, Finding the Heart of the Nation by Thomas Mayo, published by Hardie Grant and Our Voices from the Heart, by Professor Megan Davis and Aunty Pat Anderson AO of which Jimmy co-managed publishing with Harper Collins Australia.
Breakthrough
In 2016/17, Jimmy was the official photographer and videographer for the Referendum Council. His photos and footage documented the First Nations Regional Dialogues and National Convention that resulted in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Those images are part of the National Museum of Australia online learning portal and his photos and videos have been used for the official Uluru Statement website, Qantas inflight videos, Lendlease shopping mall billboards and video advertising, as well as broadcast television spots and event videos to accompany the Australian rock band, Midnight Oil on their national tour for the album, The Makarrata Project.
Jimmy worked for 8 years on the campaign that culminated in the referendum for a First Nations Voice to Parliament in 2023.
Uluru Statement from the Heart, consensus photo, 2017
By Jimmy Widders Hunt
The Referendum Council held a National First Nations Constitutional Convention at Uluru to ratify the decision making of the Regional Dialogues. The Convention delegates draft and overwhelmingly endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which is issued to the Australian people. This calls for a constitutionally entrenched First Nations Voice to Parliament, and a Makarrata commission to oversee a process of treaty-making and truth-telling.
Photographic and Film making style
Jimmy loves people and he loves places. Documenting the space between different cultures meeting. Peoples relationship to the land and eachother has been a prominent theme in his photography and video work. He especially loves documenting people helping people.
Acknowledging the past and celebrating diversity by taking more than one perspective becomes a shared experience for everyone.
Australia is an amazing place, where different cultures and languages meet. Mindful of the culture gaps between the three great stories of this country and imagining how they can meet is what drives his creativity. The heritage of this land and it's 65,000 years of First Nations cultures, languages and of caring for country, the British Institutions that have governed us and the vibrance of multicultural migration are the bedrocks for mutual exchanges of ideas and the development of deep relationships.
Jimmy's fathers family arrived in Australia from England in the late 1800's while his mothers family came to Australia as refugees from Ukraine after the Second World War. He is now married into a large Aboriginal family with his wife Yatu, an Anaiwan and Dunghutti woman.
Extended showreel
