Eco Photographer An interview of ethically focussed photographer, Alicia Fox in Muse Magazine Australia’s newest magazine for inspiration, self-help and culture, featured an interview about my work as an eco photographer. The article explores my journey from being a teenager driven to fulfil my dreams of travel and photography, to the journey that entailed, learning about what is really important to me and utilising my profession to work towards a better world. As you can read below, photography has taken me around the globe, discovering incredible cultures and learning from some of the most ancient and untouched peoples in the world today. These lessons are priceless and I am extremely grateful for the journey thus far. Being an eco photographer and living a sustainable lifestyle in both my professional and personal life is something extremely important to me, and something that I’ve written about in previous blog posts. My work with indigenous groups and NGOs around the world has contributed to this greatly. Once visiting these places and sitting to talk with the people effected by climate change, corporate greed, environmental destruction and so on, it’s impossible to turn a blind eye and un-care. Everyone can make […] Read More
As you may have read in previous posts, while I was in India I volunteered with a wonderful organisation in Jaipur, I-India photographing 7 of their projects. For my recent photography exhibition, One World through which I raised money for I-India, I created these information sheets to help communicate to visitors the life-changing work I-India are doing. Please take a read through, and let me know if you would like any more information about the organisation or my time with them. You can also watch my short video about the experience HERE. Namaste! Click on the posters to open them at a large resolution See my posts about I-India’s village school and Marble village school Read More
It seemed surreal to be standing in the middle of in an entire village made of marble. But these weren’t palaces or majals. The inhabitants of this marble village in Rajasthan, India are desperately poor and lack basic amenitites like running water and electricity in their homes. Traditionally nomads, these families chose to set up their homes in the middle of a dusty industrial zone so they could repurpose, re-use and upcycle the waste from an adjacent factory to build dwellings. I visited the village with I-India, a not-for-profit organisation in Rajasthan, India. The dedicated staff provide education and support to some of Rajasthan’s most desperate children, feeding 3000 kids a daily meal without which their bellies would remain painfully empty. I-India provides services to this area. I-India set up a school for this community, as there were no educational facilities available to them in the area. To see the basic facilities that these children learn in with such gratitude was so inspiring. Read about it HERE If you’d like to read about […] Read More
I’ve photographed at the Birpai Local Aboriginal Land Council in Port Macquarie a number of times and I always love returning to this welcoming space. The centre is set amongst the bush with native plants endemic to the area, which local Birpai people can demonstrate many traditional uses for. Every time I’m there, I learn more about the local culture of our First Nations people, and about the Birpai/Dunghutti country that I’m so lucky to live in. I was photographing for a not-for-profit organisation, FCAN (The Financial Counsellors’ Association of NSW Inc). FCAN was in Port Macquarie for a conference with volunteers and suppliers from across the state. They were treated to cultural performances and demonstrations from local indigenous children and women. The sting ray dance performed by the ladies is always a highlight – it’s so serene and calming. Following the dances, everyone (including me) learnt traditional weaving with Trish. The same technique can be used to weave jewellery or baskets, using the lomandra grass. After weaving, Rhonda walked us around the garden to learn about plants and their uses. Lemon myrtle was one of the local bush foods used to make these delicious deserts. […] Read More
I didn’t realise we had arrived at the school as the car pulled up outside a small shack in the middle of a dusty community. I was with I-India for an NGO photography shoot, a small grassroots organisation based in the desert city of Jaipur, India. As I’ll explain in another blog post, a series of coincidences had lead me to contact I-India and offer my services as a volunteer photographer. Due to changing financial times, the not for profit organisation has seen a decline in donations from its international funders over the past couple of years which means they will probably have to cut up to 30% of their projects in the next year. On the ground, this means that hundreds of vulnerable children will go hungry. I met some of these children. They are as innocent and loveable as any children I’ve met, but the fact that they were born into poverty in India means that their fate is very different from that of children where I’m from, Australia. I-India has saved them from child labour, child marriages, homelessness, begging on the streets and more. The organisation’s dedicated staff runs a range of truly […] Read More
I was thrilled to receive a parcel from Profile Books in London, opening the packaging to see my photographs on the pages of Vivienne's new book, GET A LIFE! The Diaries of Vivienne Westwood.
Vivienne and I are both fervent supporters of Cool Earth, a UK charity which is saving rainforest in Papua New Guinea, Peru, and D.R.Congo... Read More
More of my adventures working with UK charity, Cool Earth in PNG. Including lots of photos and a video of me surfing planks of wood with the kids Read More
Papua New Guinea has been up the top of my Travel Wishlist for years. Despite it being Australia’s closest neighbour (only 170km from Queensland), it isn’t a very popular travel destination – hence the appeal. A few years ago when I learned about PNGs rugged beauty, rich indigenous cultures and distinct lack of tourism, I started looking into how I could get there. Simply travelling or being a tourist is never enough for me – I always look for a way to add another dimension to any journey, and I love my profession so much that turning a travel opportunity into a Photo Trip is usually my first preference. I pasted photos of PNG onto my “Dream Board” – the digital pinboard where I gather inspirational images surrounding my dreams and goals. While I was busy making other dreams come true (making a sea change, getting married and building my strawbale cottage with my husband), plans for Papua New Guinea fell into place on their own. I was ecstatic when I received an email from Cool Earth, asking if I’d be available for a photo shoot in PNG. Cool Earth is a UK based NGO (Non Government Organisation) that […] Read More
Junkies magazine is a fantastic new Australian publication celebrating the concept of rethink, reuse, reduce and recycle. It’s jam-packed full of articles and photos of creative ways to help the planet, your own way. I’m thrilled to have this wonderful write up about my photography included in the Spring issue of Junkies magazine. These images are from my project Portraits of The Disappearing Amazon, for which I had the privilege of visiting and photographing tribes in the Amazon jungle over a 3 month period. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Please enjoy the images. Read More
We had an amazing turn out to the opening night of Pachamama Exhibition on Thursday, 26 June. Art lovers from all over Sydney came to view images of indigenous peoples of Latin America, by five photographers including me. Each photographer’s set of images illustrated a theme relating to the people’s relationship with Pachamama: Tradition by Alicia Fox Displacement by Rodrigo Llauro & Natalia Cartney Reconnection by Guillermo Rossi Adaptation by Armando Vega Relationship by Toril Pursell All photos were for sale, with a percentage going to NGOs assisting the people in the photographs. Images (framed and unframed) are still available for purchase, so feel free to contact me if you are interested. Below is a short excerpt from a call out by Survival International, an NGO working to protect isolated tribes in regions including the Amazon. It explains why rapid action to help vulnerable tribes people is important. “An alarming number of uncontacted Indians have been sighted fleeing Peru and entering Brazil. Brazil’s Indian Affairs Department has warned that they face imminent “death” as they enter into the territory of other uncontacted tribes and settled communities. Rampant illegal logging in Peru is believed to be at the heart of this impending disaster. There are only about 100 uncontacted tribes left in […] Read More
Wikipedia: “Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. She is also known as the earth/time mother. In Inca mythology, Mama Pacha or Pachamama is a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting…She is also an ever present and independent deity who has her own self-sufficient and creative power to sustain life on this earth.” I was thrilled to be invited to take part in Pachamama Photography Exhibition in Sydney. Opening this Thursday (26 June), the exhibition will run across the weekend in StirrUp Gallery, Marrickville. This group exhibition will feature the work of 5 photographers, including me: images which explore the relationship between indigenous peoples in Latin America and Pachamama. I’d love to see you there. You can find the event details RIGHT HERE. Read More
Travel is like an intensified version of normal life. We take ourselves out of our comfort zone to situations where the ups are higher and the downs take us deeper than we have ever been. This is why we often return from travelling feeling like a new person: so much more experienced, wiser and even enlightened. After a year or so travelling through South America, I’d been confronted by many lows (and many more highs, thankfully). One thing that irritated me was how long things took. I’m pretty chilled out and enjoy taking my time, but on Latin American time things can be excruciatingly slow. The border crossing from Colombia to Panama is one example of this. The whole process of travelling by boat from port towns to port towns took days. I understand that authorities in this Darien Gap region are wise to watch their ports for drug smugglers, but anyone who has spoken to locals knows that the authorities are aware of the traffickers and allow certain offenders to slip through the cracks. On arriving to Panama, at the tiny village of Puerto Obaldia, the immigration officer sitting inside his sweltering hot cement block informed us […] Read More
Being an Eco Photographer means reducing the environmental impact of every aspect of my business, and working with (i.e. producing photos for) clients that have a positive impact on the environment. I was trying to formulate an explanation as to why I’ve decided to be an “Eco Photographer” and what this actually means. Then one day three things happened to me and I became so impassioned that I did what anyone would do… I got on my soapbox (i.e. my personal Facebook wall) and shared what I was feeling with my friends and family. I received such an overwhelmingly supportive response that I decided to include my little story on this blog. It gives you an idea of how I live my personal life, which crosses over into my business life. So here it is: I don’t often put unhappy things on Facebook but I feel the need to share this today It has 3 parts, and hopefully is inspiring: 1. James came home and told me, with a smile, that he had a song stuck in his head all day, the song of some beautiful girls from the Ashaninka tribe we stayed with by Ene River, in […] Read More
My photos and I are being featured on fivepointfive.org and I think you should check it out, here. You’ll gain an insight into my project Portraits of The Disappearing Amazon, a 3 month journey which will changed my life. You can also get the background story on some of my favourite portraits from the project, and the beautiful people within them. Five Point Five is about inspiring you to do those things that you will remember with satisfaction for the rest of your life. They are all about travel, lifestyle and making a positive difference in the world – 3 things that are really important to me too. The website offers information and mini documentaries on volunteering overseas, as well as travel resources and inspiration. So go get inspired… Portraits of the Disappearing Amazon by Alicia Fox Read More
After 4 years on the road (travelling through Japan and North, Central and South America) I have returned to Australia and decided to keep the adventures rolling by setting up in a brand new city. Sydney is my new home and I’m so excited about the opportunities ahead. My photography will still be centred around bohemian fashion, portraiture and humanitarian photography, and I am specialising in photographing for brands of a sustainable and ethical nature. I’m enjoying networking with the other Sydney creatives, and inspiring each other’s ideas for photographic projects. I’m also enjoying the lifestyle opportunities available here – yoga, dance, art, sub-cultures, and the fantastic organic markets that I’ve discovered in the Inner West. www.organicfoodmarkets.com.au I’d love to hear from anyone who is looking for a Sydney based photographer for an upcoming photography project. Please feel free to contact me and I’ll get straight back to you to. Enjoy the beautiful weather! Read More
It’s time to give another shout out to all the wonderful people who helped make my Amazon photo project dream come true. In June 2012 I launched a crowdfunding campaign on Pozible.com to invite supporters to be part of my photo project to create Portraits of the Disappearing Amazon. The response was overwhelming and as a result I was able to spend two months visiting and photographing ten different tribes in the Amazon of Peru, an amazing experience which I will never forget. This week I’m posting out the final Thank Yous to supporters of the project, including prints of the portraits I created in the jungle. I’m so looking forward to getting my hands on the Photo Books that I’ve had published as gifts for the major supporters, which are in the post to me right now. I can’t wait to hand them over in the next few days. Muchisima Gracias Amigos! If you would like to see photographs from the project, please go to my New Work Folio on my website. Read More
