Photographers are often in the field and working away. Things like the National Portrait Prize are an important time for me every year, because I'm very active and I never feel like I'm doing enough. There's this fear that you're not a real photographer, and then you stop in January or December, and you start collating your work and looking back, and you give time and presence to all of these incredible stories that you're lucky or fortunate enough to witness. It's a really beautiful moment of respect. A nice thing with photography is you don't own that space generally, like it's somebody that you're filming or shooting and there's a world around that, and you're just observing. So having that moment to go "cool, I got to see that" and I'm fortunate enough to share that moment and that story. It's a powerful time.
This is Marissa Gallagher from Kintore, which if you're in Alice Springs, go west until just before the WA border. It's the traditional area of Pintupi mob. I was in town for her grandfather's funeral, a very important man, Hugh Javan. And we started chatting with Marissa who wanted to take photos of everything and she knew I was around. I've been working out that way for 20 years, so I have a pretty good relationship with people out there. I got to shoot the funeral and then we started talking and we were working on a strong young women project, which is trying to get women in front of cameras, and giving them space to talk about themselves and working on self-identity, overcoming shame and having a moment to be heard and seen and practice their power. Talking about who they are, their culture, what they care about and what they want for their future.
