'My Body is my Home'

I had the absolute pleasure of documenting ‘My Body is my Home’ a creative workshop inviting women and non-binary people to reconnect with their first sanctuary-the body. Led by Ingrid Voorendt (Back to Back Theatre) and Kate Sulan (Rawcus) at the stunning Tadao Ando, MPavillion, the workshop offered participants a space to reflect, move and anchor themselves amidst uncertainty. It was a gorgeous, albeit wet afternoon, capturing people interacting with architecture in interesting ways, to the sounds of haunting cello music by cellist Zoë Barry.

Did you know that I fly a drone?

I’ll get to the drone in a minute. First I need to say hi, as it’s been a while. And Happy New Year! I took one of my hiatuses from journaling and social media, as I do from time to time, but I found some space between Christmas and New Year to share some of the work I’ve been doing over the past few months.

I’m starting with this mid construction shoot for Bowden Corp back in Spring. Whilst many may scoff and wonder what could possibly be interesting about mid construction photography, I was in raptures, as a friend of mine would say. Do you know how beautiful the repeating lines and shapes of freshly installed trusses can be? Not to mention the pretty blue colour and striking shadows they cast on a clear, blue sky day!

As well as stills, I put the drone up for some aerial action. I did get the footage that I needed but being Spring I had a couple of very aggressive magpies to contend with! I’ve included a little clip of them below (obviously not a finished product!) along with my pick of the stills - less commercial than Bowden Corp’s purposeful selection and more my artistic interpretation.

So tell me, do you see what I see? Or do you think I’m barking mad? Let me know in the comments below once you’ve had a look...

Fixation 7

I went out looking for a new wall, longer story - I won’t go into that, and found a fixation instead. I’ve explored a lot of Melbourne’s streets and laneways over my years of photography so it’s always a surprise and delight when I come across something new. In this case something old, made new, by Hilton if I recall correctly.

Duality

So many thoughts swirling around my head about the series I’m sharing here. I thought it was going to be a fixation to begin with but this is bigger. I’ve long pondered what draws me to the intersection of contradictions; new and old, natural and built, dark and light, straight and curved and so on and thought it was just a matter of visual interest. What I’ve come to realise through much reading, talking and searching is that it’s much deeper than that. It’s a desire to understand the contradictions, the dichotomies, the dualities within myself. There’s too much to say on this to say it all here, but I’ll leave you with this. For all the time I’ve been looking at places where the natural environment meets the built, I thought, as someone who loves and respects nature, that I was cheering for the nature, when actually my heart lies with the built, in this case the house. My metaphor was back to front.

*Side note. There are too many photos here, I know, but in my defence I spent time with this house on two seperate days and took close to 300 photos. It was hard to choose!

**Side note two, I could have done a fixations series on the lacy curtains alone.

Coming out from behind the camera, so to speak.

Anyone that knows me well will tell you I’m quite a private person and enjoy being on the side of the camera that I am. However, I recognise the importance of showing my face every now and then, so in the spirit of “showing my face” I shared some insights into my practice with Jan Henderson and the team at Indesignlive. You can have a quick look below or read the full profile here: https://www.indesignlive.com/people/elizabeth-schiavello. A big thanks to Jan Henderson for her kindness and generosity of spirit.

Image Makers Association Australia's '1 Shot 24 - Seeing & Knowing'

In partnership with Stylecraft, 1 SHOT 24 opened nationally last night in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane Stylecraft showrooms. The exhibition is displayed alongside collections of both local and international brands and products, exclusive to Stylecraft.

The overarching theme of Seeing & Knowing and its disparate meaning is reflected in the images of the 42 exhibitors from Australia’s pre-eminent photographers, who each present their personal interpretation of Seeing & Knowing.

Melbourne friends and followers should get along to 145 Flinders Ln, Melbourne and take in the beautiful collection. My image ‘6:30pm from Fixations 4’, expertly printed by Peter Hatzipavlis of Final Grade and framed by Angelo & Alex Grazzini of A&L Artistic Framers, is amongst the works showing.

Fixations 6

It’s time to share another of my fixations. Adelaide is still giving here and if you’ve been playing along for a while you can probably tell me what I love about this inner city, industrial scene… feel free to say so in the comments if you’re brave… if you’re new here click the #fixations tag above and you’ll get the idea!

Fixations 5

Fixations 5. Still in Adelaide (not now, at the time of taking). If you’ve been following this series of me obsessing over fairly ordinary things, you can probably tell me what I love about this little scene… but in case you haven’t, here it is… colour, obviously. Strong lines and shadows - also obvious. Perhaps less obvious is the contrasting texture of those bricks sitting alongside the smooth concrete and bitumen. And of course there’s that ever present sense of isolation. It was also the way it revealed itself to me as I made my way down the lane. Those colourful little buildings sitting amongst the surrounding concrete giants were like a little oasis in the hot Adelaide sun. That’s all.