Julian Kingma: The Power of Choice
Award-winning photographer Julian Kingma turns his camera on those who choose assisted dying, and those who help them on their final journey. His book – The Power of Choice – won the 2025 Walkley Award for Feature/Photographic Essay, recognized for its moving portraits of people choosing voluntary assisted dying. Published by NewSouth in collaboration with Go Gentle Australia, it also features essays from Andrew Denton and Richard Flanagan.
Event #14 – RACV Torquay Resort
1:30pm-2:15pm
Cost: $25
Julian Kingma
Julian started his photography career at The Herald newspaper in 1988 as a cadet, eventually becoming the Head Features Photographer for The Sunday Age for 10 years. Since going freelance he has worked for various national and international publications including Gourmet Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Harpers Bazaar, Rolling Stone and the best of the country’s weekend magazines such as The Australian Magazine and The Goodweekend. Julian has also forged ongoing working relationships with The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Penguin books. He has a working association with publisher Hardie Grant who produced the book IGNI, a collaboration between Julian and chef/restaurateur Aaron Turner, which received international acclaim. They recently published their follow up book, The Hot Chicken Project.
Julian has been awarded Quill Awards for Best Portrait and Best Picture Story in addition to Australian Nikon Photographer of the Year. His work is regularly exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra where his work has been steadily acquired for their permanent collection.
Since picking up a book about Arnold Newman when he was 15, Julian, a long time drawer, discovered his true love. Working for the most part alone, just himself and his subject, he has never wanted to do anything else. He is at his happiest bobbing around on his surfboard in the early hours at Bells Beach, Victoria, near his home on the Surf Coast.
Moderator – Brooke Davis
Brooke Davis grew up in Bellbrae, Victoria, and made her first (unfinished) foray into fiction at age ten with Summer Sadness—a “genre-busting” blend of Anne of Green Gables and The Baby-Sitters Club.
Since then, Brooke has traded childhood melodrama for significant literary achievement. She earned her Honours degree in writing from the University of Canberra, winning the University Medal, and later completed her PhD in Creative Writing at Curtin University. Her debut novel, Lost & Found, became an international sensation; a whimsical and heart-wrenching story about grief and resilience, it was published in over thirty countries and became a major bestseller.
The novel’s unique voice—balancing the perspectives of a seven-year-old girl, an eighty-seven-year-old man, and a giant of a woman—earned Brooke a place on the ABIA Book of the Year shortlist. When she isn’t writing, Brooke remains a dedicated bookseller in both Perth and Torquay, staying closely connected to the stories she loves.
Take a look at our other sessions
This year’s line-up also includes bestselling and award-winning authors including Sarah Bailey and J.P. Pomare, who will take to the stage for a special live recording of their podcast, “He Read, She Read”, alongside acclaimed writers Alli Sinclair, Antoun Issa, Melissa Manning, Mark Smith, Tanya Scott, Brendan Cullen and Paul Mitchell, Emma Hardy, Kate Halfpenny and many more.