SWANFOX
surfer, photographer, mother, & starship sent to grace earth with her magic
HER WORK
Born in Ireland in the late 70s , Swanfox is a composer, musician and photographer.
Her work explores the relationship between the material and the ethereal. With influences as diverse as Daguerre and Jacque Cousteau, new understandings are synthesized from both natural and transcendent dialogues.
This body of work explores the Heart of the Mystic through the medium of integral film.
She draws from the mythologies of her landscape; the colours and textures become the visual expression of the Spirit of Ireland.
heather uses polAroid cameras from the 50's, 60's and 70's and integral film TO givE her work that Nostaligic / dreamy / atmospheric vibration, and in some cases mixes in double-exposure techniques and mixed-media editing to reach an even dreamier level.
(PORTRAIT OF HEATHER BY JOHN COADY)
A WORD ON HEATHER BY JULIA
Heather is a magical creature: she speaks softly and steadily, and her energy never knocks you down or over, but provides a current of strength that accompanies her movement. I met Heather on a surf trip in Ireland – she was my mountain rock when I felt very sea-legged and wobbly.
One day she took out her photographs. We had just finished dinner, after a long day of surf, and she set them down in a stack on the long wooden communal dining table. I started going through them and found myself in a warm place. Heather’s photos were her, they were Ireland, they were the surf: strong, beautiful, enchanted, vital.
I love how these tiny photos interacted with each other, triptychs forming in front of my eyes as I went through the photos again and again, finding correlation between elements, finding cycles of un-doing to becoming, of understanding, of water, of potential.
Heather’s photos reveal, very softly, that mystic sense of potential that exists in nature when you get up close to see the details and are struck (perhaps mute) by their power and immensity.
I love her dearly and the whole world makes sense when you see her photos, hear her speak, and are held in her arms. (PORTRAIT OF HEATHER BY JOHN COADY)
