This series, #TheAscentOfUs, was an unexpected gift from Covid lockdown during the southern hemisphere winter of 2020.

The shadows of the people who passed beneath my balcony each day don't reveal their skin colour or race, their politics, their faith or their sexual identity.

But the shadows do tell us something about our shared humanity.

The title of the series refers to "The Ascent of Man" by British mathematician Jacob Bronowski and the "Us" comes from the "They are us" speech made by the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, after the Christchurch massacre.

This work has been exhibited and/or published in the following:

#MassIsolationAustralia, Ballarat International Foto Biennale (Australia)
”life” exhibition, A Smith Gallery (USA)
”30 over 50” exhibition, Center for Fine Art Photography, (USA)
“Six Feet: Boundaries, Belonging, Becoming” exhibition (USA)
Honourable Mention, 16th Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers (Spain)
Stanthorpe Photography Awards (Australia)
Exposure Photography Festival (Canada).
The Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library literary journal: So It Goes, A Labor of Love (USA)
Collective 2022, Perth Centre for Photography (Australia)

The Ascent of Us

I spent most of Covid lockdown 2020 in my third floor apartment, about 100 metres from a major teaching hospital.   Most of the people on the street at that time were going to and from the hospital; essential workers and people visiting patients and loved ones.

 The shadows of the people who passed beneath my balcony each day didn’t reveal their skin colour or race, their politics, their faith or their sexual identity. But the shadows do tell us something about our shared humanity.  

Untitled, from the series "The Ascent of Us", 2020

Untitled, from the series "The Ascent of Us"