Artists, musicians, actors, yogis - creators...these humans are my tribe. The gifts they bring help us to become part of the quanta of storytelling.
Characters in a story that we are continually building up and smashing down, just the way it should be.
"Food serves two parallel purposes: it nourishes and it helps you remember. Eating and storytelling are inseparable—the saltwater is also tears; the honey not only tastes sweet, but makes us think of sweetness; the matzo is the bread of our affliction." ~ Jonathan Safran
As a fotographer who doesn't eat animal products, I find the dishes that I make pictures about require a new category of definition... the colours, shapes and molecular energy of the subject are what speak to me, and I am able to honour life (and death) as art.
Often the allure of a place in which to eat like a cafe or a coffee shop can be found in the space itself. The style and ambience has so much influence on the way we receive food. The thing that calls us back is usually the setting and location, a memorable place that nourished us as much as the dishes served to us. The light, the way the colours create shapes and tell the story of the food all provide the information we require to decide...."do I want to eat here?"
Capturing weddings is a wonderful way of sharing the stories of what may be. It could be a day where families gather to honour their loved ones and witness their ceremonies or a day of private rituals, kept hidden from the outside world where two people make a pact to create a future that belongs to them alone. Like all scripts, the individual expressions of drama, anticipation, triumph, love and ritual are encrypted in pictures that keep these emotions alive forever.
Travel is my medicine, my muse. The places I can go with my camera offer sanctuary, an inner world where I am alone in a perfect moment. My brain's chemistry urging a split second decision and the comforting clunk of my Nikon's mirror opening and closing provide proof of the knowing that I see, therefore I am!
'Being Together' - Rhys Tolhurst- dir-Leanne Hanley
Short Film written and directed by Leanne Hanley
