The Backyard
When I moved to Australia at the start of a very hot summer, I knew 1 person there and had nothing but hope in my back pocket. I’d moved on a bit of a whim, with the knowledge that photography can be practiced anywhere and where better to go than somewhere which a huge amount of natural light, right? I’d spent the past few years of my career almost consistently inside a studio and I was craving the freedom of being outside. As it happens, I was correct that you can transfer a photography career across the globe quite easily, and I was lucky to pick up some incredible clients early on. I also was very lucky to be staying with some wonderful people who became fast friends, and allowed me to set up strange editorials in their backyard while they were at work. In fact, they loved my fascination with their lemon trees and my insistence of being outside as much as humanly possible.
After a few months I started to realise that while I had all of this new country to explore, I was feeling very isolated. Australia, unlike the UK, is a driving country. You can’t get to places as fast or as easily without a car and I was very much on foot. I would often walk for hours, photographing everything I saw and I loved those days. But there were days where I was trapped in the house with nothing to do but water the plants and try to cool down as the temperatures soared into the late 30s. Everyone around me had full time work, and while photography was keeping me busy I was by no means as busy as I had been at home. In many ways this was a blessing as I was exhausted before, but I find it difficult to switch off so found these long hot days more tiring than any 12 hour shoot day.
I started to write a page or two a day, then I started to write longer stories and then the ideas kept flowing. I was feeling the most inspired I’d been in perhaps my entire life, but also felt I had no one to show these ideas too. I started reaching out to local artists and models and worked on a series of editorials that felt really me. This is my personal favourite, a little love letter to the garden than sustained me in those first few months of finding my feet. An autobiographical diary of the things I did, how I kept myself entertained and how I made use of myself to the people so kindly housing me.
It was a pleasure to work on this with model Lea Combres and make up artist Mak Young, both also somewhat new to the city and exploring what it meant for them too. I loved their commitment to my ideas and their acknowledgment of how hard it can be when you’re trying to figure out where you fit in. The shoot was concepted and styled by myself, featuring items from my vintage collection as well as some of Lea’s items too. All props were kindly provided by the backyard itself.
