Jonathan Steinbeck, The carer with the cared (PEOPLE & PORTRAIT 2026)

Corin Pennock is a wildlife rescue carer with ACT Wildlife. She is one of the selfless volunteers who takes in orphaned and injured wildlife to care for them until they can be released back into the wild. I met Corin through ACT Wildlife when I was photographing her to help promote the work that the organisation does. At the time that I photographed her, she had two joeys in her care, a wallaroo and a swamp wallaby, pictured here. Corin was such a gentle person, and her wild charges seemed to register that, being very calm in her arms. This shot was taken at Corin's property in the enclosure that the joeys share, using off-camera flash. I was happy that I was able to capture both Corin and the wallaby engaging with the camera. My idea was to show the connection that Corin has with the animals that she cares for and how they in turn, trust her to raise them.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.