Portrait Shoot with Guyala, First Nations Model and Poet

These photos are from my Portrait Photo Shoot with First Nations model and poet, Guyala Bayles.

The traditional culture of Indigenous groups in Australia has also suffered terribly, for different reasons – namely colonisation and governments policies, among others. When I returned from living in South and Central America for 3 years, I was drawn to learn more about Australia’s traditional custodians. The history is so deep, rich and complex that I could spend my entire life learning. Yet already, through my own research I’ve come to appreciate so much about Aboriginal culture. And I know there is a lot of wisdom there that everyone can learn from.

Previously I had worked with Guyala (Lala) on a model portfolio shoot. When Lala contacted me about doing a second shoot together I asked her if she’d be interested in doing a portrait shoot, as well as film one of her powerful poems. She jumped at both ideas.

Lala’s Aboriginality and culture are very important to her and fighting for her rights is something she has devoted herself to. I think that her graceful strength comes through in these portraits.

For the shoot we met at her childhood home near Kempsey. Her mum painted her up and I found a simple background (a concrete water tank) to shoot in front of. With my favourite new portable lighting setup we captured a series of frames. I took them home for post production.

I love the contrast and mood created by the combination of Lala’s pose and expression with the lighting.