Robyn Jean, the harvest of beauty (PEOPLE & PORTRAIT 2024)

Photography captures our lives in moments of time. I am fascinated with how as women we age and the way we respond to our photo being taken. There is a harvest if you like of our beauty as we age. Cosmetics, plastic surgery, cold plunges, showing the world our best side, hoping we will still be young and beautiful forever. This is a study of my own self image. I have used composite layers, a Maali (black swan) which is a deep part of my Noongar culture, the places I love to walk that are slowly dying due to climate change; As I walk through the trees I feel a sadness of loss of beauty. I used an image of tree that had been burnt and these beautiful patterns remained. This covers me as another layer the lines of water from the maali wash over me, my hands are placed across my sort (heart) in the shape of Maali wings.I am one with nature, connected to my culture, this is my beauty and my home,

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.