When I was young I used to plead with my brother and sister to dress up in the most outrageous outfits just so I could take photos of them on Mum’s little Kodak camera with the little single use bulb flash. They put up with me, and well they really should thank me because now they have some really unique childhood photos of themselves to look back on. Some people go through school and come out the other end with no idea of what they want to do with their life. That wasn’t me. I knew I wanted to be a photographer and once I finished school I joined the Royal New Zealand Airforce to train as one. After seven years serving with the New Zealand Defence Force I decided to do further training in the field of graphic design as well, and after completing this qualification I started my own business doing both. I have now been a professional photographer for over 25 years gaining my ‘Masters’ with the NZIPP in 2018, and a graphic designer for 20! Today you’ll find me doing a variety of projects, interior design, graphic design, arranging flowers or photographing people and places.

I am inspired by beauty. It can be found in the most ordinary everyday details, often going unnoticed. I see beauty in people when they can’t see it in themselves and I love to show that to them through my images. I see it in peeling paint and dinted furniture – ‘things’ that hold the memories of our special people. People and their stories that are so easily lost in our fast paced world. I love listening to people and reading biographies – people inspire me. To often we leave things until it’s too late and that period of life has changed or gone forever. I never got to take portraits of my parents because my Mum passed away so suddenly. We had been planning on taking some photographs but hadn’t quite got around to it and then she was gone…

Photography can keep our stories alive and with us forever – it can capture your life, immortalising a moment in time, EXISTING in photographs. It gives memories not only to you, but to your whole family and those who love you. It truly is a gift for the future.