Sharon Chapman loves taking a racing photograph and she takes some pretty good ones too.
She would go anywhere in search of the next good one.
Which is why, with partner Mark Lee, and dogs Kenny (named after a Kenworth truck) and Kurban (Keith Urban of course – who have their own Instagram), drove their reconstructed Toyota Coaster towing a Suzuki Vitara, some 2100km over four days to get to the iconic Birdsville races via Roma, Longreach, Winton, Boulia and Bedourie.
The iconic Birdsville races took place over the weekend Picture: Sharon Chapman
"We went the long way via Longreach, not as much as dirt, plus we cracked a windscreen on the first day,"
she said on the way back where she ticked off her sixth Birdsville, but unwittingly became a little of the news rather than recording it in her award-winning way.
You don't need to know Chapman's back catalogue of iconic photographs to know the uniqueness and clarity of her vision, all driven by imagination and going the extra yards.
Black Adder with Elizabeth Theobald at Birdsville. Picture: Sharon Chapman
Well in this case, kilometre after kilometre.
You can see it in the exclusive pictures she has provided to Racenet here to understand a little more of all that is Birdsville for those who haven't ticked it off the bucket list just yet. Birdsville, some 140 years old this year.
But Chapman awoke unwittingly last Tuesday to a firestorm on her phone, pretty hard to do in remote Birdsville, after she published a photograph – one of four in a grid – on her social media feed that has escalated to a major stewards' inquiry involving jockey Ric McMahon and trainer Todd Austin and allegations of the illegal use an electrical device (jigger) at Birdsville trackwork.
The picture, like many of Chapman's, went viral, the Queensland stewards rushed out west, and the racing parties stood down immediately, their key Birdsville Cup runners scratched, decimating race fields, and bewildering Chapman, who was just doing what she loves doing.
The iconic Birdsville Cup has been thrown into disarray with the scratching of Todd Austin's two horses following an alleged jigger scandal.
— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) August 31, 2022
"I love Birdsville and coming out here and doing what I am doing. I just thought I had another nice picture, I had no idea of anything else," she said of the classically monochrome close-up shot of horse and rider in the central Australian dust on a beautiful Birdsville morning.
And why should she. She simply is a photographer looking for the shot, not a photojournalist looking for a story.
"I'm staggered, my two most famous pictures, I never knew I had," said Chapman.
She refers to of course her first one – Banna Strand jumping an outside track fence into an unsuspecting crowd in the 2011 Warrnambool Grand Annual, her first day shooting horses rather than weddings and birthing this new career.
Banna Strand' jumps a fence into the crowd at Warrnambool. Picture: Supplied. Sharon Chapman's infamous shot
Now Birdsville trackwork!
"I was just as surprised as anyone, just looking for another nice photo. I don't zoom in on every pixel looking for something, just though I had the shot I wanted."
It was a phantom phone call from Mt Isa and then Racing Queensland stewards that shocked Chapman as to what she had had posted and instantly deleted.
"When I got the call, I was thinking of vests or helmets, in all the shots I have always taken of participants I make sure I am not putting them in harm's way. I never knew anything worse here."
So, the real background is Chapman had professionally gone to the trainer's camp on the Monday afternoon seeking out Austin and McMahon for assistance in a freelance trackwork shoot the next morning, hoping to use a Go-Pro and a drone.
And she walked over from the stables to the track that Tuesday morning where McMahon deferred the GoPro to stable apprentice Brooke Richardson while Chapman prepared for just what she thought was a normal morning shoot.
And as far as she was concerned that was all it was. And should have been.
Some of the brilliant images taken by Sharon Chapman at Birdsville. Photos: SUPPLIED.
"I try not to read social media, all I did was post some pictures of the morning which I thought summed up what I was looking for, but I've done the right thing and nothing more to add, it's up to the stewards whatever they do," she said.
But what Chapman does is far more important to her and she can be an ambassador to not only Birdsville, but the reasons for her work, now based out of south-east Queensland, after her freelance work in Victoria was stymied by industry control.
"I just love Birdsville, the remoteness, it's iconic, it re-invigorates yourself as a photographer, there is always something you never know.
"There were the wildflowers this year, beautiful to shoot, there's been the dust, the wet, the floods, the races and of course the people. I've been here six years and there is something new every time.
"I've done everything from Birdsville and the dust to Winx and her prime," Chapman said. "I've always been challenged by the good photo".
Saccharo and Robbie Faehr combine for trainer for Philip Cole to take out today's TAB Birdsville Cup
— SHARON CHAPMAN (@FastTrackPhotog) September 3, 2022
While supporting the Royal Flying Doctor's Service charity with fundraising on previous Birdsville trips, Chapman notices some familiar faces as well as challenges to the outback venue this year.
She and Mark run their own business on the side of season photographic work "A Food Truck Somewhere" (it is called but renamed "A Food Truck nowhere") right now, but she will defer to the family that has been coming to Birdsville from Wangaratta for 40 years with "the best hand carved chips to die for" as one reason to go. It's a long haul but sounds a good reason why.
But of Birdsville, as much as Fred Brophy's famous boxing tent remains a fixture since 1978 surviving political correctness and who'd have thought alleged fight fixing, Chapman has a simple reason for the Birdsville appeal.
"I suppose there is just nothing like outback hospitality in an outback pub,"
she says noting you can't get any more outback than Birdsville, population 115 and swelling to whoever makes it or can fly in, both impacted by fuel costs this year, as much as the weather.
"Everyone has got a story or a yarn, a journey as to how they got there or why I suppose, you can meet anyone from Morwell to Cairns or Dubbo, but everyone can sit down and tell you why they are there or how they got there."
The crowd watching the Birdsville races. Picture: Sharon Chapman
"It's still the same in terms of camping like swags and tents, not as many planes, maybe COVID affected that, but fuel costs for sure, but Birdsville is Birdsville, it's all about the people," she said.
And Brophy's tent remains the nocturnal activity as always outside the iconic pub, the meeting place after the races and still the step up to the plate for pretenders and bruisers.
"It's the last of its kind for sure," said Chapman.
"I reckon one year there was this male model from the Hunter Valley have a go one year and they ended up calling it a draw and that was a kind result," she said.
Just for reference, Fred Brophy's tent arrived in Birdsville, the same year then, and the only sitting Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, made it.
Another classic Sharon Chapman snap from Birdsville. Picture: Sharon Chapman
History says Brophy attended with his long-term partner Sandi that year and promised he would make her "an honest woman", if he ever won a Birdsville Cup. He's had a placing, 2009, so they are both still waiting.
So next for Chapman?
"I'm off to the Hunter for foals next week then some Ready To Run videos, but I'm still looking for something different," she says.
"Maybe chasing the dirt, it gives you a different element, the dust trail and the horse, maybe Broome and Roeburn, but always after something more unique."
"The last thing I never want to do again is stand in a scrum and get the same sort of shot as everybody else."
You can be well assured that will never happen if Sharon Chapman is pressing the camera shoot button.
Kommentit