Ninety-five-year-old World War 2 veteran Nancy Crofts stood tall, shunning help from nursing home staff when she arrived to have her photo taken as part of a massive pro bono project to capture the remaining 14,000 World War 2 veterans in printed portraits.
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Ms Crofts, a signals clerk during the war, was one of 42 former veterans shot one day by professional photographers at McNamara Lodge, a RAAF Association nursing home south of Perth.
"A lot needed help or walking sticks or frames, but they left them outside the room, stood up tall, and said 'I am walking in on my own'," said Rebekah Wilson, one of 300 members of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) who have donated their time and work to the Reflections Project.
"They looked like they were marching into the room. It was their one moment," she said. Like the men, Ms Crofts was clear: "I can walk by myself if you let my arm go," she told an occupational therapist hovering nearby.
As many as 1000 veterans have already signed up, but some died before their photos were taken. The AIPP, which hopes to photograph at least 8000 veterans, is urging others to do so before it is too late. Portraits have already been taken across Australia, from Ballarat in Victoria, the Hunter in NSW, to Cairns and Broome.
One of the first was Bamia Mast, an Indigenous soldier who enlisted with the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion in 1942. His son Eddie said the war introduced his father's family to modern life. Before then, the family lived in the dark by kerosene lamp.
"I'm honoured he's my Dad and has given me this world. He stood up and believed what he did was right. I just want to cry."
On Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, a highly decorated veteran Flight Lieutenant Keith. J. Stevens, D.F.M. couldn't hear but beamed as soon as the photographer appeared. It was the 96-year-old's "first official" engagement since he was awarded the Légion d'Honneur (Medal of Honour), France's highest Military Honour, at his bedside.
At a nursing home in Charlestown, near Newcastle, it was love at first shot for photographer Vivian Hayles and veteran Watson Dingwall, a 96-year-old who served on an island in the Pacific. "He had a twinkle in his eye, " said Ms Hayles whose portrait shows Mr Dingwall holding his enlistment photo – where he resembles a young Cary Grant – taken 70 years ago.
Professional portraits – taken with studio lighting and professionally printed – captured the veteran's personality and were less ephemeral than digital photos. "These are a work of art, rather than a selfie with the cellphone at the end of the arm," said Ms Hayles, whose company Light Magic Images usually takes photos of babies and children.
Based on a similar New Zealand project, the portraits will be donated to the Australian War Memorial. Each veteran will receive a complimentary portrait. Proceeds of copies sold to families and friends will be donated to Legacy and the RSL.
Many RSLs will offer free portraits to veterans on Anzac Day, and the photographers were travelling at their own cost to see veterans in remote parts of northern WA and Queensland, said the project manager John de Rooy.
The largest single project undertaken by the AIPP, Mr de Rooy hoped it would also remind the public of the value of hard copy printed portraits. "They last forever, but a digital copy may not hang around. If you go through a family album, you can pull out beautiful photos from the '20s, '30s, that will last many generations. "
To sign up for a portrait, click on AIPPVeterans or call 03 9888 4111.
