Given a whole role of 35mm film to use in her parents’ SLR as a child, to document the growth and release of tadpoles, Connie McDonald‘s unwitting introduction into photography has clearly had a potent effect upon the young creative. A 19 year-old design and photography student in Wellington, New Zealand, the Dunedin-born photographer has a touching eye for the melancholic, her images affording their viewers moments of pensive contemplation. “I love the lyrics of Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan” McDonald tells us, and that lure towards the poetic is evident amongst images that often live in the shadows.
The work of photographers William Eggleston and Annette Messager are key art inspirations amongst other writers and musicians, but it’s the medium itself that inspires and informs McDonald’s work most; “photography is my vehicle and my document of life” observes the fledgling artist. It’s clear that Connie McDonald feels her way through photography, and is affected by her means of expression: “a great photograph is one that comforts or excites, or saddens you”.
Recognising the cinematic quality of life itself, Connie sees her images as the beauty found in moments – it’s the essence of great photography and, at just 19, here’s a young talent already capable of capturing those moments, in all of their widescreen beauty.
