WEBVTT

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So my name is Janelle Low and 
I won the National Photographic  

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Portrait Prize in 2013 with my 
portrait of Yhonnie and Indiana.

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I feel comfortable saying that prior to 
winning the prize I was basically nobody  

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you know I was completely obscure I was just 
doing my own thing and after winning and the  

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crazy media frenzy basically that happened 
afterwards I was getting recognized on the street.

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I started working with Yhonnie 
through Dianne Tanzer Gallery  

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and she approached me one 
night and just said look my  

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my cat has been really unwell and she's been 
at the vet and I don't think she has long  

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to go so could you come around and take a portrait 
of us together before before it's too late.

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I love portraiture and I like to capture 
a person in sort of a moment of time and I  

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like that portrait to have a real sense of that 
person and of our interaction together as well.

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So the day that I found out that I'd won, I was 
actually getting ready to come up to Canberra.  

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I generally treat myself to about one haircut a 
year the rest of the time I do it myself. So I  

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was up the road last minute I was like no I should 
look nice I should look nice the Prime Minister's  

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going to be there I should look nice and I was 
having my hair washed and I got the phone call  

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and I was just sort of like I don't know what 
this number is I'll answer it just in case  

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and I started crying pretty much straight away 
into the basin and the woman washing my hair  

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was are you okay she's like did I get shampoo 
in your eyes I mean no no it's fine it's fine  

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it's fine I just found out 
that uh don't worry about it.

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It's really hard to actually describe fully 
how much of an impact this has had on my life.  

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It basically changed it completely and I 
just need to keep that in mind every day and  

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just kind of go no this is don't stop because 
you're tired or whatever it is like you just  

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just have to keep doing it because you 
enjoy it you could be doing so many other  

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things right now you could be working 
in a you could still be selling games  

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at EP games. I could be still working in the 
back of a bakery you know just not enjoying  

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myself but this is what I get to do now so I'm 
going to keep going at it and try not to stop.