Story
We have a friend that is going through some medical issues at the moment, involving many trips to the hospital for tests and procedures, and quite a lot of uncertainty. I have never once seen them complain about what life is throwing at them. Quite the opposite – talking to them and reading their posts on social media, they’re staying completely positive and taking everything that life is throwing at them, with one eye on the fight and the other on the future. I approached our friend to see if I could photograph them and tell their story with an image.
After geography turned out to be a bit of an impediment, we decided to tell the story with a different model, and the concept continued to evolve. Friend of the family Isla stepped in as our model, and suddenly having a young girl as the subject changed the story even more.
One thing before I start. When you look at an image like this, it might take a little while for you to unpack it in your head, and decide what it means. Whatever interpretation you come up with is completely correct! Sometimes people will tell me what they think it’s about, then say “OK what does it really mean”, then wonder if they’ve offended me because they interpreted it differently. From my point of view, if I’ve left enough ambiguity in the image, your interpretation will feed itself, and it’s just as right as another. So no matter what your interpretation is, I hope you enjoy it!
To me, this image is about a girl that is in hospital and is quite unwell. She doesn’t get to leave, so she’s built an imaginary place for herself to live. Little bits of reality poke through in to her fantasy world though – her drip, her hospital gown… and a portal to the outside world, with all of these people going about their business. And she’s looking at them and wanting to be out there… somewhere normal, somewhere we might not appreciate, but she longs to be there.
Production
First up – location. We traipsed all over the place, driving for hours and hours, to find the perfect location. Along the way we got lost and probably picked up 5 ticks between us. In the end we found a perfect spot about three minutes’ walk from home. Go figure.
For most images I’m pretty keen to do some kind of test to make sure the geometry and composition works. Usually it’s a sketch. I don’t mind adapting when the shoot is on, but I’d much rather work out the kinks ahead of time so everything is easy peasy when we come to do the shoot. For this one, I took our daughter to the location where we would shoot the final image, and shot a few test frames with our gigantic gridded octobox. It was a really quick shoot, and she did a super job… considering she was being eaten alive by a bazillion mozzies. I am a bad, bad parent. 🙁 
Meanwhile, Wanda took a dress we picked up at a Queensland Opera costume sale, and altered it to suit the brief – organic and flowing, with hints of a hospital gown peeking through. We also organised props – a drip pole, an IV bag (thanks Natalie!), and the hospital bracelet from when Wanda had one of the kids in hospital.
On the day, armed with bucketloads of bug spray, we headed down to our location. The shoot didn’t take too long, Isla was a pro, and we got what we needed. And more!
Most of the work with this image was the composite work to add the floating window, as well as butterflies (most of which we shot in India last year) and flowers to convey that this forest is a good place.
The second iteration of the image embedded the window in a wall (courtesy of the Brisbane Powerhouse) and changed the perspective a little bit, as well as adding people from outside.
Here’s a detail shot that shows some of the bits that I care about – Wanda’s hospital ID band, the hospital stamp on the dress/robe, the little happy blue flowers, and the recessed bit of wall for the window.
Awards
The earlier version of this print (with the floating window) received a Silver with Distinction at the 2015 QPPA awards. One of the best thing about showing your prints at the state awards is getting feedback during or afterwards – imagine having access to a whole bunch of really accomplished and articulate judges for feedback! Here’s a little glimpse of the edits to go from QPPA to APPA:
After some refinements, the version with the wall received a Silver at the 2015 APPA awards. Why did the score go down, you might ask? Is it not as good now? The standard at the national level is pretty high, and I think they are (correctly) holding prints to a very high standard when judging. There are a ton of variables that might influence the score – that’s part and parcel of entering a print competition, and I’m totally cool with that. I saw a great many prints go by at the APPAs that were very high quality but just missed out on a Silver award, so I know the judges are working hard to ensure the best of the best get awards. I’m ok with that, and it makes me doubly proud that this image got over the line.
Lauren is a close and dear friend of ours. She’s a bit of a superwoman – singer, musician, fighter… singing teacher, combat teacher, and primary teacher. Not to mention she is mum to our daughter’s best friend! She’s one of the hardest workers I know, and moves heaven and earth to keep everything for her family trucking along. We’d been talking for ages about doing a muai thai shoot together, probably with her wrapping her wrists, in the ring, preparing for a fight. Then our friend Matt Palmer posts 
