Poppy No. 1, 2020 - 2025

Poppy is a series of work exploring the idea and symbolism of the Poppy flower within Australian Culture. Moving to Australia I was fascinated with the reverence held for ANZAC day and the use of this flower. The poppy flower was used as a symbol for the commonwealth because of a very beautiful poem written by the surgeon, John McCrae, in 1915. Within this poem there are these lines,

"We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields."

Using these flowers I wanted to capture the feeling of these words. Poppies show such a strength but also fragility, capturing these images in the natural sunlight. However these flowers in themselves are so temporal and made me think of the fleeting moments for which soon these petals would fall.

This image was captured using a medium format film camera and developed in studio.