My Exhibition

Coming from a small town in Taranaki, sports and the outdoors was my upbringing. I loved boards and I loved bikes. Today I own a range of boards or things with wheels, either for the snow, grass, water or concrete, I admit that I'm not a pro at riding them all but it always keeps my adrenalin flowing. 

I fell in love with snowboarding at a later stage and decided this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Having lived in Canada an injury brought me back to NZ where I did 3 seasons in Wanaka, working in sales for Treble Cone Ski Area. A denied working visa to Japan in 2010 was a setback which eventually led me back to Taranaki. Throughout my travels taking photos and videos always played a part in my adventures and with WITT offering a photography course it felt right to learn this craft and build my resume.

Throughout the year the skills I have learnt about my camera has helped me develop my ideas and images into tellable stories, with every picture taken each has its narrative. For me it has developed an interest towards photojournalism, as this type of photography snaps life as it happens. I am the kind of person that lives for the moment. Like my motto "Hitting pause on a good buzz" . Learning photography made me realize my passion can be anything I choose.

When we were told we would produce an exhibition, the idea of photographing an athlete popped up in my head. I have always admired female artists and athletes who have helped push the boundaries in the male dominated industries, and they have always been a big inspiration to me. There are so many talented girls in the world and even more talented girls in NZ and here in Taranaki. I want to capture the extreme lifestyle of today's young women, and this is how I have come to name my exhibition; three female athletes who live the extreme life, competitively or socially. 

In Taranaki we have our own current NZ national surf champion in Thandi Tipene. Also in Taranaki we have a local up and coming BMX superstar in Hayley Gedye who is training for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Lastly we have my good friend Liz Say, a british snowboard instructor who has done 10 years of back to back winter-seasons with no intentions of stopping anytime soon.

I captured and showcased these girls' talents, personalities and the environments they placed themselves in to give you an insight into what drives these girls, and what pushes them to keep on doing what they love to do.