Biography
Midway through year eleven I jigged high school, caught the ferry into town and signed up for a photographic cadetship with the Australian Consolidated Press dashing my parent's dreams of me becoming a scientist. Three years later I embarked on a professional career as a photographer, shooting for magazines including Gourmet Traveler, Belle, The Bulletin and The Australian Woman's Weekly.
In my early twenties I held my first photographic exhibition and began making short animations and creating veriteĢ doco portraits on a 16mm Bolex. This evolved into a passion for live action pictures which led to me undertaking a three-year cinematography degree at AFTRS.
Since graduating I have shot over twenty short films with a skew to narrative driven dramas. These include Paul McDermott's, The Girl Who Swallowed Bees, nominated for a Berlin Bear and winner of an AFI award, and Inja, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film.
I've worked as a cinematographer in TVC's with production companies such as Prodigy Films, POD and Ignite. In addition to my commercial portfolio, I've shot and directed music video clips for The Cruel Sea, Spider Bait, Tim Rogers, Eva Trout, and a variety of Indie bands.
My work as a dramatic feature cinematographer includes Lost Things, written by Stephen Sewell and directed by Martin Murphy and Mark Forstmann's Monkey Puzzle, which went on to win Best Cinematography at Bend Film Festival in Oregon. I've also shot All about E which sits on the `AfterEllen' top 10 list of best queer films.
As a documentary cinematographer I've been recruited to shoot long form television documentaries for the ABC and SBS, as well as regularly shooting segments for Compass, AlJazeera and National Geographic. More recently I've worked as a cinematographer on feature length documentaries, Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troop which was nominated for Best Documentary at both Sydney and Melbourne film festivals, It All Started with A Stale Sandwich directed by Samantha Lang and the Shane Warne documentary SHANE currently streaming on Amazon.
In the art space I've collaborated on video installation works with prominent visual artists including Jonathon Jones, and Gabriella Hirst. Last year I won an ACS NSW Gold Award for my work on Living Legacies directed by Amanda Reynolds.
In 2021 I worked as B camera operator for DOP Murray Lui on the 4 part TV series `True Colours', premiering at the Sydney Film Festival in 2022.
During Covid I worked part-time as a senior cinematography lecturer alongside Kim Batterham at AFTRS. In this role I developed and delivered numerous workshops in exposure, latitude testing, lighting techniques, and moving camera for the MA
cinematography unit. This included working closely with the directing department, Rowan Woods, and Hannah Hilliard, to deliver an intensive series of workshops focused on dramatic storytelling
In 2021 I received accreditation from the ACS. .
LINKS
http://www.stillstanding.org.au/
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/earthrise/