I do not know how this photographic feature slipped by without being shared with you (such is life over the past 2 years!) - it was featured in issue two for 2021 of Happinez. It is my favourite of all time & marks a very important change in my life - it is the first shoot in my new hometown, a ten year long goal actualised. To receive this brief from Happinez in the first month of moving up to the Northern Rivers was wonderful and felt serendipitous.
The issue is all about silence - harnessing the power of silence and stillness, listening deeply, listening within. And for this I was asked to focus on the circle, being the symbol of silence and stillness. The circle is also the hallmark of Happinez. There is always a circle on each cover and this story honours the circle as the center of silence. As Albertine wrote to me in our briefing, “Inside the circle it is quiet. The more you go to the middle, the more quiet it is. The circle is a symbol for eternity, no beginning and no end. A perfect nothing.”
I had so much artistic freedom with this shoot, playing with the elements of earth, fire, air and water and finding ways to express the circle & stillness. I wanted each photograph to be a work of art.
The first image above was harnessing the stillness in sound - using the Tibetan singing bowl as my inspiration. I just loved how it played off the texture of the rich soil and beach grasses.
The moon and planets were my inspiration for the second image above. The well-worn studio floor was my backdrop, with it’s beautiful paint tin rust stains. The plate and bowl are by Made of Australia from Shack Palace, and the Black Clay ball soap is from my favourite soap makers in the world, Est Australia - I have been buying their soaps and carrying them with me around the world for 20 years! I stocked their incredible soaps in my homeware store all those years ago, and have never stopped ordering from them as a customer since.
For this photograph I place a gorgeous handmade cast iron plate in the centre with seaweed from my local beach. I sprinkled sand on the dark surface along with dried flowers from my aged flower collection and inside the jar is gold leaf paint, sitting on the surface of the water. There are layers to this work and when you look closely you may see them.
Element: Water. I wanted to make a dream-like rock pool. I was inspired by my visit to Shelly beach which has so many beautiful rock pools, so I wanted to create something like this - the idea of looking into this water hole and wanted to dive into it. Laly and I call it the fairy pool. And this special creation became our outdoor table centrepiece for the following months, it was beautiful to look at and play with, contemplating which creatures - both earthly and enchanted - came to visit the fairy pool during the night hours.
Again I photographed this on my concrete studio floor, adding sand from our beach, and also some seaweed. The bowl I found a few years ago - someone had discarded it on the side of the road. So many of the most wonderful pieces in my home have come from the side of the road. The green colour of this bowl is gorgeous, I love it. Inside the bowl are barnacles, shells, dried flowers and moss. Floating on top of the water are a couple of dandelion heads - I love the symbol/message of the dandelion and also it’s circular/round form.
Element: Earth. This vine of dried grass was growing inside my studio, near the door. I absolutely loved the idea of shaping it into a circle form. I wanted an earth element but something surprising - I didn’t want to make a wreath or mandala which felt a bit obvious, and I love how this turned out - so simple but it took me a long time to try to get it right. The vase is handmade, it was given to me some years ago by my friend Zoë.
Element: Fire. This photograph for me weaves together my surroundings and heart space. I wrote to Albertine in my description for the photograph, “The clay dishes are very special - they were made by my friend, local artist Natalie Wilkin. Nat is one of the main reasons I moved up here, she is my closest friend, and she is incredibly talented. She makes a range of elemental wares, and this is part of her new collection. Here is her website. Some of the clay for these pieces was sourced directly from her home, a sacred piece of land in Moorang-Moobar Country.”
I hope you enjoy these special photographs and the creation stories behind each of them.
With love,
Pia x
