Julia and Charis [family photographer sydney]

Can you imagine

what it must be like to leave a life you know, and to bring your child and suitcase half way around the globe, to a place where you don’t know many people, to build a new life from scratch? Having dabbled in the art of immersion in foreign countries, I can relate to how it must have been for Julia, back in the day when Charis (pronounced with a silent ‘h’) was a small child and she made the decision to immigrate to Australia.  I certainly didn’t have a child in tow, but I did have the experience of loneliness, cultural isolation and the ever present challenge of trying to settle in to a place that I wanted to call home. 

In my case, I was settling into a short term life in London.  Back in the day, Julia came from London to Sydney, to settle permanently and to raise Charis. She left her other daughter in London with the girls’ father.  Can you imagine that? Talk about courage. It’s like a modern day free-settler story: British National travels on a one way ticket to a far away land to make a new life with her young child.  Gawd! That’s massive.

I love the photographs

we created here in a random Pymble pub in Sydney.  Julia and Charis both wore white, which gave the images a very angelic, pure, fair-maiden-Norman-Lindsay feel (minus the nudity of course!).  Charis is a beautiful young woman now, working full time and finding her own way.  I always think it must be bittersweet to be a mum.  On the one hard you want to raise your child to be independant and confident, and when you see that actually happening, my god, that’s it, my job is done here! My little chick has flown the coop! But that’s the nice thing about it, home is where the heart is.  Charis’ home is right here with Julia.  I asked her if she thought she’d go and live in the UK and she said no, she didn’t think so.

What a lovely thing, Julia and Charis, to have said yes to making a record of your relationship as it is now in 2010, over the simple task of preening each other for your photography session. I could see that you gave a lot of thought to hair, makeup, clothing, and painting your nails.  To be photographed is not an easy thing to do.  I think it’s so great that you’ve been authentic enough in your photo session to let the camera see the chemistry between you both.  For sure, there’s a bit of tussle going on at the moment, but that’s normal enough, and won’t last.  It’s really nice to stop and take the time to capture it all.  This random day in a Sydney pub is just as important as the day Julia arrived in Australia, as how Charis was as a 5 year old, a 10 year old, and so on.  This is just one of the chapters in your special story.  I hope I will be called on again in the future when the timing is right.

Any personal favourites?

Mine are the ones where you’re both peering out of the window.  Charis, you’ve inherited your mother’s high cheek bones, can I borrow them sometime??

Beautiful beautiful ladies! Thanks so much for spending half an hour with me, capturing your family magic.

B

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Beth