Photography has been a love ever since my Dad told me that a photo I had taken of my guinea pigs when I was a teenager showed I had a ‘good eye.’ That little bit of encouragement led me to bachelor and honours degrees and eventually a masters in photography at RMIT University. I have exhibited across Australia and the United Kingdom, even in the National Portrait Gallery in London, and I taught in the RMIT Photography department until a move to Deniliquin changed the trajectory of my life and career.

My own art took a back seat for quite a while as I raised a family but I kept my hand in with jobs taking photos at the Deni Ute Muster, as photography steward at the Deniliquin Show and through steering the A Day in the Life of Deniliquin community photography project in 2001, 2011 and 2021.

I love street photography, where I will often ‘shoot from the hip’ with my fixed lens FujiFilm X100S. This technique lets me capture moments with minimal intrusion and these five images were ones taken during a three-month family holiday in Europe in 2014. They are part of a series that explores isolation in urban and rural landscapes, both literal and poetic.

I printed them using photopolymer photogravure at the Baldessin Studio in Melbourne. Photogravure is a printmaking technique where an image is etched onto a metal plate that is then inked and put through a press. It is time consuming but gives you a beautiful textured and tonal quality to your print. The titles of the images exhibited here are taken from favourite songs performed by my band, Ruby Saltbush.