“I was born in Hornsby Hospital in 1982. We lived in a little house in Rydalmere till I was about 3 and then we moved to Schofields which is near Windsor. It was really beautiful country and we had beautiful neighbours. Our whole street was Maltese and they were all farmers so we’d get bowls of peeled prickly pears, rabbit stew, all that traditional Maltese cooking.
Mum was pretty desperate to get out of the city and she loved horses so she wanted to buy land. We had 5 acres and 10 acres next door as well. It was just me and my sister and we had the most amazing childhood. All the kids on the street were boys of all ages and it was so much fun. We had a creek that ran through our property so our house flooded all the time. Everything in the house was up on bessa blocks because the house flooded 15 times. The first time it flooded, my Dad’s friend was sleeping on a blow up mattress down in the studio and woke up to the sound of the ceiling fan making a spluttering sound in the water and he was floating through the room. We were prepared after that. Life was riding horses, playing in the creek and running amok.
I went to high school in Riverstone which was a Christian School with a lot of Pentecostals. We weren’t Pentecostal but the public school was pretty rough so Mum sent us there. She also wanted us to be exposed to different types of religion so we could make up our own minds. Our teachers were nut jobs. They taught us the world was created in 7 days. Everything was literal. I studied Theology later in life and I had this really beautiful teacher who was Irish Catholic. She said, there is truth in the Bible and there are beautiful stories with truth in them but they are not historical facts. They used to put the fear of God into us which is an awful way to teach children. I left that school and went to Quakers Hill which was a senior school for the purpose of doing Photography but when I enrolled they pulled the subject so that was terrible because that was the reason I went there.
‘So was your mother Maltese?’ – No, we are still working it out as there are so many rumours about what we are as Mum is quite tanned as well. It’s definitely Russian, Polish, Jew and way back, North African and on my father’s side there is Australian Indigenous from Narrabri, the Kamilaroi, from his mother’s side. We thought we were Spanish for a long time because that is what my Grandmother would say but she had no idea. We can’t find Spanish anywhere (laughs). I go really white in Winter though. I always wished for that really rich culture especially around food. I always thought I was Mediterranean but..Nup! (laughs).
I was terrible at school but I excelled in Art and was in the top 10% so I managed to get an early acceptance into Uni through a portfolio. I did a Bachelor of Design majoring in Photo Media but I originally wanted to major in Illustration. I got into Fine Art and I also got into Visual Communication and Design. I wanted to make a living and thought I would have more chance through the design work but then I hated it. I hated sitting at the computer. I loved Illustration and did well at that but I got introduced to Black and White Photography and that was it. I spent so much of my time in the dark room and I had this fantastic Lecturer from 1st year to 4th year who introduced me to some great bands like The Pixies and The Smiths and I feel like that was the soundtrack to my Uni days.
I worked the whole time I was studying and saved to go overseas. I got my first job at 14 in a Michel’s Patisserie in Windsor and I worked from there in boutiques and cafe’s and I just saved everything. I’d also started working for a Photographer, Andrzej Liguz. He was in his 40s and shot a lot of portraits of musicians for Drum Media which was a publication I bought religiously. My friend and I used to sneak into gigs to see and to photograph. I used to see Andrzej at gigs all the time and I knew what he did as I’d done a lot of research. One day I said, Can I come and be your assistant? He’s like…Nah! Don’t need one. I’d see him another week and ask again and I get the same response. After pestering him about 5 times he says…Alright! Alright!! bring in your portfolio which I did. Then he says, you need to be shooting way more, these are fine but you need to shoot way more photos. So he says, come in once a week but I’m not paying you, you can learn, you can do my taxes, scanning, everything involved in the industry. That chewed up time but I learnt so much. He gave me the kick up the arse I needed. He’d send me out shooting for a couple of hours, I’d come back and he’d say – Are you happy? I’d be like, a-hmm! And he’d say, Go back out! He’s living in LA now and he still calls me with advice (laughs).
I went over to Spain with my partner at the time who was my first significant boyfriend. We were together for 5 years and ended up living in the UK for 2 years, earning the pound, travelling together, earning the pound and travelling more. I didn’t want to come home but had to as we only had working holiday visas.
I came home and decided to do a Dip Ed so I had the option to live anywhere if I wanted to. I went to Strathfield Uni to get a Dip Ed. I spread it out over 2 years, worked full time and lived in Newtown for 5 years and partied way too much. I partied hard and had so much fun. My friends and I were just obsessed with music so we went to heaps of gigs. I’d take photos, develop them at uni and most were terrible because there was a lot of experimenting and so many of the gigs were so dark but I loved it.
So then my relationship ended which was huge. That was a hard time and I partied way more than I should have and I was pretty reckless. I was in a blur for about a year. I had finished studying to be a teacher but didn’t want to be a teacher, I wanted to do photography but didn’t know how I could do it. I was in this weird state, I didn’t know where my life was going.
I had this thought that I hadn’t been to the top end of our country. It’s crazy because everyone you meet overseas has been to the Northern Territory. I felt like an idiot because I hadn’t gone there. I was uninspired to be a Photographer in Sydney. I’d dated someone in Sydney and really liked them but I’d just ended a relationship and they were going through a tough time after ending a relationship and losing their father. That person dumped me and I was devastated. That was the motivation to get me moving so I decided to drive from Broome to Cairns.”
