ANGELS
I’m very excited (and a little nervous, putting my boobs out there again) to share with you the story of a self portrait with Josephine and it’s entry into the National Print Awards. Thanks in advance if you have the time to read it all (it’s a bit of an essay!!) - I hope you enjoy the picture of our perfect imperfections, it's very close to my heart, thanks for all your support x
I wanted a portrait to symbolise my breastfeeding story with Josephine..similar to the one I did with Harvey but more ‘girly.’ Second time around it has been a relatively smooth and joyous journey. I wanted a beautiful, renaissance inspired portrait (cue angel dress up) - plus Josie looks dead-set like a cherub.
Despite the awkward wig/wing/remote juggling whilst feeding, the initial portrait was thankfully taken fairly easily. Josie likes to look at herself in the mirror so I now place one near the camera so she’s looking in the right direction and I can get a better idea of posing myself and her.
It was a lovely shot, but I started thinking about what were very white wings, and I didn’t like the idea that made us look ‘perfect.’ We’re not.
I’m not always a saint about what I put into my body as a breastfeeding mother, and Miss Josephine requires boob every 2 hrs at night!!! So not at all perfect, but it’s our story.
So I wanted to dirty the whiteness a little, and decided to use a beautiful plate I had made in Bosnia on my travels as a circular background. The texture worked wonderfully. And then we became part of the plate, symbolising my past and present. And I let the texture of the plate etch into our skin to bind us together: past, present, mother and daughter, (and it looked cool and otherworldly). Lastly I paid attention to colour toning and dodging and burning the light and shadows to bring home the renaissance feel. And then ready for printing by a fine art specialist in Melbourne.
On Saturday I attending the judging of the Australian Professional Photography awards. Some of you might remember I qualified to enter after doing well in the State level earlier this year. It was very confronting having my work publicly judged, but the lessons learnt from the critiques are invaluable, and make me strive to do better and better. Being amongst a community of photographers, some of the best in the country, living their triumphs and failures together…the calibre of work was incredible, and as a print competition, all of the awards prints were put up on display…talk about inspiration.
I entered 4 prints: 3 scored well but did not receive awards. I wasn’t expecting any as a first time entrant, but I did have my heart in my mouth when my Angel picture came to be judged. It scored 88 points out of 100. I had a judge who was passionate about my picture, she ‘got it’ - all the elements I was trying to express (you can’t give a written explanation of what you were trying to say in the image, it’s what the judges perceive). She fought very hard to sway the other judges to award it Gold (90 and above points). Whilst that would have been incredible, having someone feel so strongly about art that I created, that was the reward. And a silver distinction was more than I’d dreamed of. I sat with Josephine in the audience, and there were tears. My entire family were there with me, to share the delight in a very important moment in my journey as a photographer.
Champagne for everyone!!
Thank you, as always for your support, I’m often trepidatious about sharing things, certainly very personal things, on social media, and am always so grateful for your positive words; your encouragement of my work.
Lauren x
If you’re inclined, you can see the phenomenal overall category winners here:
http://www.aippappa.com/appa-2017/2017-aipp-appa-category-winners