After 11 years photographing women, I really drew a blank over which image to post on #internationalwomensday, to the point where I am quite late tot he party.
Considering the bulk of my career was arguably beauty photography and portraiture, I have created literally hundreds of thousands of images of women, in varying interpretations of "beauty", all photoshopped to suit the idealised self-image, or the unrealistic requirements of the client or industry.
I had never released these images of Anne, a woman who has led a spectacular life, with one constant: dolls. She collects and handcrafts traditional porcelain dolls. She makes dolls day in, day out, from her home in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and has for the past 40+ years.
#IWD made me stop and reflect on who inspires me, and it's women with conviction and dedication, because these are the qualities I strive for in myself: to have conviction in all that I do, and to be utterly dedicated and consumed by it. Those are the women I look up to, the women who find what they love, and dedicate their lives to it.
Even if what they love is simply making dolls.