AWARDS & EXHIBITIONS

THE IMAGES & THEIR STORIES

Every recognized image has a story beyond the final photograph.
Here are the ideas, people and creative process behind mine.

THE STORY BEHIND *EYE’S DA BYE*

I’ve always loved old movies and cinematic storytelling. *Moby-Dick* captured my imagination, the characters, the atmosphere, the mystery of the ocean and, of course, Captain Ahab.
That inspired me to create my own character: a rough-around-the-edges fisherman who idolizes Ahab. In his mind, when he puts on his battered captain’s hat, his favourite jacket and lights his pipe, **he is Ahab**, at least for a little while.
But unlike Ahab, my fisherman has a mischievous side and loves a good joke.
And that's where *Eye’s Da Bye* begins.
Then **below this whole image/text section**, I'd continue the story in smaller sections, **Bringing Him to Life**, **That Eye...**, **Yes, the Fish Was Real**, and **Creating the World**.
That will make somebody **scroll through the creation of the photograph**, almost like behind-the-scenes chapters. Much more interesting than dumping the whole story beside the image.

BRINGING HIM TO LIFE

The character needed someone to bring him to life, so naturally, I recruited my husband, Steve.

Steve is my go-to guy whenever I say, “I have an idea…” He’s willing to dress up, step outside his comfort zone and become whatever strange character I happen to have imagined.

Underneath his jacket is his old lucky white T-shirt, worn out, stretched, wrinkled and torn. It's the kind of shirt he should probably have thrown away years ago, but he never will. It's comfortable, familiar and part of him.

Over it, he wears his nice jacket. Because even this rough old fisherman has something he likes to put on when he wants to look the part.

Then there's his captain's hat. It's bent, buckled and definitely not sitting perfectly straight, because neither is he. It's worn and imperfect, and that's exactly why it belongs to him.

Add the long unruly hair, scruffy beard and his pipe with smoke billowing around his face, and the character I'd been imagining finally started looking back at me.

YES, THE FISH WAS REAL

And yes, Steve really did have a fish pressed against his face.

It came from the grocery store and had already been cut open, which created another challenge. I photographed it and then reconstructed it by hand in Photoshop, taking pieces from different areas of the fish, reshaping and blending them together until I had the fish I needed for the finished image.

Near the end of the session, Steve informed me:

“This has to be the last shot. I’m going to smell like fish.”

It was. 😂

THAT EYE...

Or so Steve thought we were finished.

Halfway through editing, I realized his visible eye wasn't giving me the look I had imagined. Steve naturally has very squinty eyes, but I wanted this character to have one big, almost comical eye staring straight back at you.

So... back to the studio we went.

I told Steve we needed another photograph of his eye and that he might actually have to pull it open for me. I photographed the eye separately and then composited it into the finished portrait in Photoshop.

Every element of Eye’s Da Bye was photographed, manipulated and composited by me. No generative AI was used to create this image.

CREATING HIS WORLD

The world surrounding him was just as important to me as the character himself.

The cool blues and turquoise tones represent the ocean, mystery and the unknown. The warm oranges and golds bring warmth and familiarity into the scene. The clouds create the feeling of a dramatic sky hanging over the ocean, while the circular ripple-like patterns in the background represent water.

I wanted all of those elements to come together so that the photograph felt less like a studio portrait and more like a still pulled from an old cinematic story.

AND THEN CAME THE NAME...

Our fisherman proudly holds up his catch, presses it against his face, looks straight at you and delivers his terrible little joke:

“EYE’S DA BYE!”

And that was it.

Eye’s Da Bye was born from an old movie I loved, a character in my imagination, a very patient husband, a grocery-store fish, a second trip to photograph one eyeball, and a really bad pun.

It brings together so much of what I love about creating: photography, characters, humour, storytelling and building worlds that didn't exist until I imagined them.

This is the kind of photographic storytelling I want to create more of, images inspired by the old movies and cinematic worlds I grew up loving.