Portuguese Surf Photographer Beatriz Ryder Wins Illume Award

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In recent years, Beatriz Ryder has become one of the most prolific photographic contributors to Stabmag.com.

The Byron Bay-based Portuguese photographer is a regular WSL collaborator, though her work has always extended well beyond conventional sports photography.

Strip away the jerseys, stickers, logos, and assorted branding paraphernalia from the CT events she covers, and many of her images could pass for intimate documentation of freesurfing trips between close friends.

As it happens, one such trip took her to the Solomon Islands, where she photographed Hawaiian longboarder Shaley Mercado perched delicately on the nose of her board, mid-hang-five.

That photograph has now earned her an award.

“During our trip to the Solomon Islands, we didn’t score the best waves, so we’d paddle out for photos at every opportunity,” Beatriz said.

Captured during an all-female surf trip, the image was selected from a field of 20 finalists, including work by Brent Bielmann and Joshua Tabone, to win the Surf and Aerial category of the Illume awards.

Illume judge Aaron Lieber praised the photograph’s “contrast and reflection”, observing that “the image is built on opposites, light on dark, calm on motion.”

His verdict? “A photograph made for a wall, not a feed.”