My Story
Roaring into my 15th year of running my family portraiture business, I didn’t think much could make me stop. I was unwell for 4-5 months in 2019, had major surgery in November but kept going strong taking it slow after a few weeks off. Droughts, fires, floods didn’t stop me either… Sessions were postponed and rescheduled amidst dust, smoke, mud and torrential rain, while it was tough to be in business and live on a rural property it didn’t make me stop.
When things changed
While enjoying a family break in far North Queensland in January we heard about the virus on the news but never fully comprehended the reality of what was coming. Coming into late February and March it became clear as the words ‘lock down’ were introduced to our daily vocabulary that a drastic change was ahead.
I panicked at first, as I guess a lot of business owners did. I was going to be forced to close down completely for at least 6-9 weeks, possibly longer. I tried to come up with a different way to do what I do but taking family and newborn photos means I need to get close to my clients. Ultimately it was impossible for me to take my business online. I had no choice but to close completely.
Creativity strikes
There are many Australian Photographers that I admire, but as I started creating Intuitive Art it became apparent that there was no other photographer doing what I was doing. That was a great thing. As I had no one to be influenced my, I could lead the way. Back in 2018 I had an idea of using my much loved macro lens to capture the tiny details found when I would look closely at nature found on my farm. I found the tiny structural detail and ‘art’ of nature to be fascinating. I began this project but ran out of time and thought I would pick it up another time… The idea of this project popped into my head once again shortly after lock down and decided to spend my time giving this idea as much of my energy as I could but this time, to dive in a lot deeper and share my macro botanical wall art.
I’ve always been an advocate for ‘rich’ portraiture, I always aim to provide my family portrait clients with photographs that hold substantial amounts of tangible emotion so their connection is full and instant. As I was taking these beautiful macro photographs it occurred to me that possibly, to me, they were not ‘rich’ enough. Whilst beautiful, the message seemed a little empty to me, I knew I could do better.
I started brainstorming ways to create rich wall art… wall art that has depth, meaning and takes people well beyond a superficial level, to bring more meaning to my photographs. My mind was being steered towards colour. I have always been amazed by the concept of colour psychology. I previously used colour psychology many, many years ago when I worked as a graphic designer. Colour psychology had always called me so I decided to start doing some serious research and delve into this topic as far as I possibly could. I realised that it seems, nature has an absolute abundance of messages for us, everywhere we look but the language is colour, and geometry. So when you receive a beautiful bunch of pale pink roses, you love them, the roses themselves are absolutely beautiful, but also and possibly more importantly the colour of the roses sends our subconscious mind a beautiful message making us feel calm, loved and nurtured leaving us with a feeling of physical wellness and understanding, without us even really realising it!
This lead to my company by-line of Your Botanical Tales. My photographs would share not only the incredible shapes and structure of nature, but translate the messages nature has for us.
Where I started
I began photographing lots of items I found in nature, translating the message and found most of my work to have a positive note. Whilst this is great and a good thing to be positive, our real lives are often not all that rosey. Sometimes our culture is to hide our negative experiences and pretend they never happened, this is not a healty way to live. We all have our own story, our own challenges, heart breaks and losses. And it is in our darkest days that we meet our greatest strengths. That’s when I considered the other side of the coin. The negative events we experience in life are crucial to who we are. We shouldn’t deny or hide them. Without negative experiences we wouldn’t be as experienced and as strong as we are.
Being a mental health advocate often holding fundraisers and exhibitions to raise money for mental health on a local scale… possibly there was an avenue here for my botanical tales to include adverse stories and help encourage people to celebrate the challenges they have overcome in their lives, and to help normalise openly discussing all things that are not positive.
Pain teaches us who we are. And having come through it all and owning a beautiful reminder of our triumphs to act as a visual reinforcement of how strong we are, is a wonderful way to keep the positives from a negative experience.
These thoughts brought me to another way I can expand and bring more depth to my work. I an ancient art form with a core concept that I absolutely love and live by, and have always wanted to explore… Kintsugi reminds us that our challenges should not be hidden but should be shared as a feature that turns our life story into a beautiful and unique piece of artwork.
It seems this little business of mine has unfolded in three big steps. Letting it evolve organically leaves me finally feeling as though I have the concept thoroughly set in stone and I am ready to share it with the world and reach as many people as I can.
If anything, I hope my work helps some to feel validated, to know they are acknowledged, that they are being heard, that they are being supported. I hope my work serves as a way to remember, to be remind yourself of how proud you are of your life story, and to see yourself as the remarkable human that you are.
Thank you so much for being here,
The Humble Hunter x
Click here to see my Artwork Gallery and my creations since inception.
