Artist Statement

It is a pleasure to create beautiful capsule’s of time, to pour imagination and life’s most profound teachings into a photograph. To save time so that others may share in the story, the awe, the magnitude of your feelings that emerge in a universal, visual language.

To explore the other has been core to my enchantment with the world. It is whilst travelling in other cultures that I feel most at peace.The obligations and pressures of western society seem to fade and an understanding of the simplicity of happiness emerges.
Being welcomed into a strangers home in a new country and being treated as family really makes it so astoundingly clear that there is no difference, no truth in borders or restrictions to class, gender, disability or ethnicity. It makes the beauty of human nature so profoundly clear.

I recently created a body of work called ‘Heroine’ which re-imagines the lives of historical Monarchs. Stories which have been hidden from history, manipulated and disregarded by colonial powers and men who sought their stature.
I think it is important to send the message of these innovative, immensely powerful women; early feminists who stood up and fought for what they believed in to move closer to equality.

On this journey I met with contemporary female advocates of gender equality in South Africa, who have suffered domestic violence. They helped me to begin the process of my own healing and for this I am forever grateful. Once again photography opened a door, let me confide in people who I might not have otherwise befriended and have the most meaningful encounters.

I strive to create work which empowers the sitter and the viewer, which preserves the beautiful differences and uniqueness of people.

‘Mothers’ in an organic progression of my work with women. Truly inspired by the ineffable love of my own mother and women I met through research for a previous project ‘Heroine’ who were all victims of emotional and physical violence whilst being a mother. Half of humankind will be a mother at sometime in their life. It really dawned on me how normal yet unimaginably exquisite the journey of Motherhood is and how little I knew about it.

The more time I spend with mothers, I have seen how Pregnancy, Birth and Motherhood come with unfathomable magic, love and pain. I realise how unique each story is and how important it is to share and celebrate them all.To re-evaluate how we perceive our bodies as women and what we are capable of.

One of the Mother’s I spent time with begun her pregnancy with a 24 hour morning sickness and a crippling sciatica throughout her second trimester. “I wanted so badly to enjoy my pregnancy, and I felt robbed of this experience. My mental health suffered as I was unable to do anything I enjoyed. Nine months is a long time when you're unable to find any joy in life.
Someone once said to me that everyone becomes a mother in their own time and in their own way. My journey just started a little earlier than most. The sacrifice, the surrendering, the unrelenting responsibility all began with my pregnancy. It was my first lesson, albeit a very painful and challenging one.
The birth of my baby was the most mentally and physically challenging accomplishment of my life. I'd compare it to climbing Mt Everest. It is your greatest undertaking, your most intense journey, complete with your utmost joy, satisfaction and relief! Having a natural water birth made me the woman I am today. I feel stronger, empowered and ready to be a mother. I'm in awe of women and what we're capable of. Everyone of us is a superwoman, whether we know it or not.
I feel incredibly lucky that I was able to have this positive experience, especially after having such a difficult pregnancy. It set my baby and me up for a wonderfully blissed out next few months”.

I love this time of learning and listening, it is one of my favourite things about photography; the camera being an excuse to get close and intimately document something so beautiful to me. Working mostly on a medium format analogue camera with ten pictures on a roll, the process is slowed down and considered, a real collaboration with the sitter in attempt to honestly portray the wonder of the subject in front of me.

Most recently, and really as an extension of my work celebrating the idea of the feminine, I ave begun to loosely translate my interpretation of female archetypes & legends throughout time. As we step in to a very uncertain time where our environment is rapidly changing I find myself and the women around me longing to re-identify with their wild inner-nature, that seems to have been lost with the fertile land of this planet.