About annamair
My ambition: to have my photo on the cover of The National Geographic!
It’s hard to put into words what the opportunity to work with Jason Edwards would mean to me! He lives the life I have always dreamt of: working for the National Geographic as a travel photographer. As long as I can remember our home had shelves full of yellow magazines which would take me away to unknown and intriguing places through the images I saw. My father also had albums filled with his own ameteur photographs of his travels. These ignited an interest in both travel and photography that continued to burn into a lifelong passion.
My first camera - an old Box Brownie - was given to me at about nine years old (mainly so that I’d keep my hands off my father’s more technical camera!). I began travelling the world long before that though, migrating from Britain to Australia with my family at the age of two. I think all these factors have predisposed me to be a professional travel photographer, so you can imagine how frustrating it is that in spite of my many efforts this hasn’t happened yet.
My photographic business, which I started about eight years ago only generates a small amount of income, so I work several other jobs to get by.
Although I started young and studied photography at college, Life got in the way of my dreams. I found myself living in England as a single mum on a low income, where putting film it the camera had to give way to putting food on the table. But after migrating back to Australia again in 2001, I began to dream about using travel and photography to make a living. This dream still feels a long way off, but I’m working towards it. When my Son left home I started to become a little nomadic, taking long trips and exploring the outback.. I love landscape photography, but want to learn more about storytelling with photos. I want to tell the story of some Aboriginal Elder women I have met who are trying to give their great grand children the future they couldn’t give their own children. It is an important story, which requires a relationship with these lovely ladies, and they deserve to have it told well.
I have learned by studying other photographers’ work that a photo can not only reflect a place and time, but also culture, history, emotion, spirituality, and so much more. A photograph can inspire people, motivate and enrich them, even bring about social change. A simple two-dimensional image can have a lot of power. I am still working on getting my images beyond a pretty picture. I believe that spending time with Jason Edwards will help me learn more about the art of storytelling with pictures, and bring the depth to my work that I really desire to have.
