About

I am a photographer, author of The 50 Book: Women Celebrate Life and art therapist living in Sydney, Australia on Cammeraygal land. What interweaves these roles is my interest in people and the power of images to communicate our stories.

I first picked up a camera in my early 20s, later contributing to various photo agencies and publications while working as a photo editor and researcher with various publishing houses. But for a long period, photography fell by the wayside. Approaching 50, a single mother with two teenagers and a long career in illustrated-book publishing, I decided it was time to rekindle my passion. I enrolled in a Master of Documentary Photography (SCA, 2012) where I discovered a love of portraiture, focusing my lens on people and their stories.

The 50 Book was soon born, among other projects such as work documenting people experiencing homelessness, trauma and mental health issues. Some of my documentary portrait work aims to challenge perceptions about people who are often stigmatised or invisible — with a particular interest in the stories of women. It is my hope that the people I have photographed feel themselves seen, heard and acknowledged. I often include the words of people I photograph.

In recent years, I have also begun doing commercial portraits for people from various walks of life. Whoever I photograph, I find it inspiring how both the subject and viewer, and even the photographer, can be affected by the possibilities and power of a portrait.

Along the way, it has been wonderful and motivating to have had some of this work acknowledged and nominated for several awards and had opportunities for exhibition.

Alongside my work in portrait photography, I became fascinated by the therapeutic potential of photography and I later undertook a Master of Art Therapy (WSU, 2017). Creating art offers possibilities for communicating (often subconscious) ideas and feelings without words. And therapy is the process of making sense of that: creating a relationship and safe place for people to explore what emerges in their art. I am now constantly inspired by ways in which art, photography and therapy interconnect and believe that there is enormous potential to use photography within a therapeutic context.

I’m also passionate about ecotherapy and how time spent in nature can improve our mental health and increase our resilience to stress. Where possible, I now incorporate this in mindfulness photography and art workshops to explore creative processes for self awareness, growth and wellbeing.

Within my Art of Wellbeing practice I offer bespoke groups for organisations and the community and see individual clients, including people with disabilities through the NDIS.