Marie Claire …
“Photography found me - and now the road back….”
My career in photography has been such a winding road.
Reflective perhaps, of a life less ordinary.
Throughout my childhood I was bred like a racehorse to do one thing: go to university, study law and become a lawyer.
A QC (Queen’s Counsel) was where my Father saw me.
No ifs. No buts.
My Father identified something in me from a very young age and my career path was set.
I took it as a compliment because it meant I was exactly like him.
Logical, articulate, able to stand up and wage an argument, with the will to stand up for others in the face of injustice.
But as often happens in life, fate had other plans.
No one ever really asked me what I wanted to do.
Not even myself.
My Mother, on the other hand, watching me closely, saw into my soul.
There she found one truth.
I wanted to be a Mother.
Just like her.
Off to university I went and I loved it.
Economics.
Then motherhood.
With a brief moment to think whilst nursing that baby girl, though still so young, I realised something.
I needed to choose carefully.
Looking back, I wonder who that insightful girl was, barely in her twenties.
That serious yet carefree version of me did one thing.
I read.
Two books created the distinct and definite detour.
“Someone Else’s Daughter” written by Julia Sheppard.
“Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders” written by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Genry.
Not exactly light reading for a new Mum absorbed in the love of her infant.
Deliberate reading.
It was instinctual soul searching. University would reappear and I wanted to choose the right path.
So I immersed myself in true crime. Curt Genry was the prosecutor on the Manson case and I was throwing myself into the future world of criminal law.
As I looked into my baby’s blue eyes, I knew I was going to have to disappoint my Father.
Criminal law was never going to be for me.
I know myself too well.
I am too sensitive.
I would never forgive myself if I didn’t win the cases and those photographs of victims would haunt my dreams.
What would I do?
I have an analytical mind and I can write.
Psychology. Women’s studies.
I can help women.
In a sheep station guest house, surrounded by the blood-red dirt of Kalgoorlie and completely isolated, those textbooks became my salvation.
Back in the days where you had to be either this or that, I made my choice.
Then fate stepped in again.
It spun me 180 degrees once more.
Moving from red earth and 55-degree heat, to the terror of Sandstone, photography was now in hot pursuit.
Was I in pursuit of it, or was it in pursuit of me?
Who knows.
All I know is one of us gained ground and my career was finally cemented.
Fine art children’s photography in Perth.
Photojournalistic wedding photography in Margaret River.
Fashion photography, then beauty photography in Perth, then Sydney.
Multi-award-winning portrait photography, always reflecting my fascination with and deep love of humanity.
What a ride.
What a privilege.
What a wild ride.
The people I have met, always handing me their trust.
The moments in time frozen forever.
I got so lucky.
As I sit in my lounge room reflecting with gratitude, I look around at the countless black and white images I have of my children.
I would never have these had I not had the courage to follow my heart and try.
Just keep trying.
Somewhere along the way the world changed, and so did my life.
Quite dramatically, in fact.
Now you can have many careers.
You can have them all at once.
So I redefine.
I relaunch.
I will always be a photographer. It is the very air I breathe.
But I am so much more.
I am a photographer, a writer, a stylist, and I am deeply obsessed with studying neuroscience.
I love this new way of looking at career and identity.
The freedom to evolve.
To expand.
To become.
Where will it take me next?