Last year, I was contacted by Dr. Matt Finch to take part in a webinar about photography. I was flattered to be asked, although I was unsure what I could contribute to such a discussion.

While schedules and Covid kept postponing the webinar, Matt was tenacious in his organisation and one morning in early April, I joined Matt, Australian artist Wendy Catling and New Zealander research librarian Dr. Natasha Barrett in a Zoom meeting to discuss our experiences with photography.

With Dr. Finch asking questions and leading the discussion, we touched upon memory, migration, power and agency in our individual photography stories.

As the discussion developed, I was fascinated by Wendy and Natasha’s work, as well as their photographic experience. I found myself becoming emotional at times when we touched upon our first experiences of photography and how these experiences linked us to our past, family and culture.

When the discussion was over, I was most struck by how this was the first in-depth conversation about photography that I’d actually had with other photographers. This communication was so important: in creative endeavours, filmmakers talk to other filmmakers, artists talk to artists, musicians talk to musicians. Isolation is detrimental to creativity. 

The filmmaker Wong Kar-wai advised that when a creative is starting out, it is best to collaborate and communicate with others rather than toil alone. As I listen again to the podcast Matt has made from this webinar, with its insights and revelations, I’d do well to remember this.

All that remains is to thank Dr. Matt Finch, Wendy Catling and Dr. Natasha Barrett for their openness in taking part in this meet up and continuing to communicate afterwards.

The podcast can be found on Soundcloud and on YouTube.