I was recently featured in the Southbank News with my Behind the
Windows Isolation portrait series. Read the article below, or see here:
By Marco Holden Jeffery
As the people around her entered lockdown earlier this year, Letitia Green reached out to connect with her community the way she knew best: through art.
Her series Behind the Windows, submitted for her final assessment of semester two at the Photography Studies College (PSC), captured the people she met and encountered in their own homes as she went for her daily walk.
“Life as we knew it, freedom and travel, has changed within an instant, along with a depth and breadth of layered feelings now present, [and] the portraits aim to depict these feelings in a provocative manner,” Letita said of the series.
The photos were certainly provocative: the example shown featured a young child, a mix of curiosity and confusion on her face, perhaps unable to understand the severity of the pandemic but aware something is nonetheless amiss.
“The series is really about exploring the people behind the windows and their emotions: the hope, the boredom, the fear, the playfulness,” Letitia said.
The lockdown brought a similar mix of emotions for Letitia, as she juggled her part-time studies, her own creative design business and homeschooling her six-year-old daughter.
But despite admitting the workload was “really challenging”, Letitia seemed happy to be engaging with even more creativity outside of her work.
“It’s a really good balance, I’m only taking on projects that I love and working with clients I want to work with,” she said.
A self-made professional fashion designer and visual artist, Letitia was relishing the opportunity PSC was giving her to upskill and expand her enviable arsenal of creative skills.
“For me, photography is another way to make art, it’s a way to connect with people and bring meaning to my life,” she said.
“I’ve found my passion in photography is taking portraiture and capturing people in those meaningful moments.”
Photography had already opened other creative doors for Letitia: she was a committee member and photographer for Beaumaris Modern, a non-for-profit organisation dedicated to documenting and preserving mid-century modern architecture in her home suburb of Beaumaris.
“It’s a great way to get involved with the community and connect with different people in the design and art industry who are passionate about the same things,” she said.
Letitia’s professional practice was already well-established: she started producing work for her own fashion label in 2014 after working in commercial fashion and as a freelance illustrator and designer.
Since then, she expanded her offerings into visual art and product design, opening up a whole new world of exposure - work featured in New York Fashion Week, a guest speaking spot at the Melbourne Fashion Festival, and a scarf worn by pop star Rihanna.
Although originally Letitia had started studying photography to complement her existing art and design skills, she saw photography becoming a much more key component of her professional practice in the future.
“I still want to work in the fashion industry, but by doing creative fashion shoots and developing and working on portraiture, either for a client or just to explore and play,” she said •