Welcome to our world, a space that’s now yours too

I started photographing when I was in grade 5 or 6, playing with my step-father’s film camera and learning to develop photographs in the dark room. Over the years I studied law, had an intense corporate career and never stopped my photography. In 2014 I moved the hemispheres and found myself in Melbourne following my passion and reinventing my artistic calling as a photographer.

As a child, I loved having sleepovers at my grandma’s. She had a box with old black and white prints. To hold those prints in my little hands, asking my grandma to tell the stories behind them, it was pure MAGIC. By far, my favourite photo in the collection was a shot of my mum on her first school day, she looked exactly like me at that age. Till this day, I still get the same warm feeling and shivers when I see the photograph.

But aside from that one photo, I rarely get to see another photo of my mother because she didn’t like being photographed, and trust me, I get it. Most people don’t like being photographed because we feel vulnerable in front of the camera.

A few years ago when I was at a friend’s venue launch event, I randomly took a photo of one of the guests with her daughter. It wasn’t even a real photo session, but I was mesmerised by this mother-daughter bond. Through my lens, I was looking at their connection, seeing their glow and happy smiles. And at that point I realised that often, I get so carried away with creating beautiful stories for others that I’ve never taken the time to capture one of myself for myself.

The next day I set up my studio gear at mum’s home and took some portraits of my mother, my daughter and I, our generational photos, from my tripod. I printed them large and proudly displayed our fine art portrait in a beautiful Italian frame on the wall, one at mum’s place, one at mine. Since then, I’ve made the deliberate effort to take a photo of us every year on Mother’s Day. It’s our new tradition.

Through my photography, I am in the business of inspiring confidence and connection amongst women, and I want every woman to truly feel like they exist in my photographs. Not in iPhone selfies, but in real prints.