As expatriates, we are so fortunate to have seen and experienced so many incredible cultures and places with our families.
Most of us have had exceptional journeys: adventures alongside our loved ones that we cherish as the most precious gifts of our overseas experience.
These adventures bond us to one another, and form a lasting fabric of shared memories that we will share with our families forever. As a portrait and family photographer in the region for nearly 23 years, I have had the privilige of creating wonderful images for clients that commemorate points in time along their journeys.
However, I am not the keeper of the most precious records of my clients' growth and lives: they are. We all carry high resolution digital cameras in our pockets and purses and even if we don't consider ourselves to be 'photographers', I believe we are. I believe that we all have in our possession the most treasured records of our experiences.
As a photographer I can create a wonderful image that captures relationships, spirit, love and marks a moment in time, but I cannot be there alongside my clients when their most precious experiences are recorded as iconic photos on their own cameras and smartphones.
The problem is most of these images remain hidden from view. They remain locked in digital storage devices, are occasionally shared, but our archives rarely see the light of day, and are rarely enjoyed and re-lived. for my clients, their family is their greatest work of art. Their images deserve a solution worthy of their importance, a showcase solution beyond a simple digital montage or dated family photo wall.
Working closely with my clients, I create custom works of personalised art from their own treasured archive of family images. Using their photographs as raw material, I create gallery-worthy works of fine art that take pride of place in the home, and are showpieces for family and friends. These are legacy pieces that stand alone as fine art pieces, yet are so much more powerful because their content is formed from the family's journey together.
There are many design solutions that I have created to accommodate a range of aesthetic preferences. I am best known for comlex, hand-cut photo weavings which literally fragment and then weave together selected photographs curated from the family's archives.
Many processes are possible as well, such as photo montage works that evoke the contemporary artist Robert Rauschenberg, similarly using photographic transfer techniques and other mixed media.
Large scale mixed media works that employ a featured 'central image', always an iconic shot that has a very special place in the family's history of experience, are another approach, evoking the style of artist Peter Beard. I have also made photographic wall sculptures employing the latest digital printing techniques on boards and other 3D materials, building physical photographic 'pods' which are stunning in their design, composition and organic structure.
It is an honor and a privilege to work closely with my clients to create these wonderful, totally bespoke pieces, works they are proud to feature prominently in their homes, and which incorporate the powerful bonds of the family, speaking of their journey together every time one walks by.
