ART PARTY: EMMA WAND
Art Party is a celebration of the art we create and the story behind it.
Each feature includes a curated list of questions to help you dig deeper into sessions you may see on Instagram and want to learn more about.
If you have a session, series, or collection you would like to celebrate, send me an email with all the details and a link to the gallery.
MEET EMMA:
Family is my everything. I prefer to live a minimalistic life, spending more time outdoors than in. I love beers in the sun, listening to music every day & being with my special people. I am 90s-obsessed, and I still love wearing flannel.
HER PHOTOGRAPHY:
My work has been described to me as feminine, dreamy, sensual, real, warm, earthy, free, authentic & emotive. I know my work is organic & honest. It is all about the adventure, and capturing the adventurous at heart.
THIS FEELS LIKE A SLOW SUNDAY MORNING…
What happened was I drove from Sydney to Bonnie Hills with my 4-year-old, my dog, my husband, and my mother-in-law.
There was so much packing, and I was busy organising everything before we left.
I turned up and just felt really stressed within my body. You know, my jaw felt a bit funny. I just felt a little bit tingly. I felt off energetically and really, really tired.
I rang Emily, and I said, " Would it be all right if I came and met your partner? Because I've never met him in person. And we just have a cup of tea, and I see you, and we catch up, and then we'll do the shoot tomorrow morning?”
And it was honestly the best decision because we sat and just relaxed together, laughed, and I heard more of their stories, as they'd already filled in a detailed questionnaire. But I got to know him as well, and he ended up feeling so comfortable with me the next day, whereas if I had just rushed in there and done the shoot, I would have felt frazzled. The images would not have turned out the same.
I work energetically. My whole business is all about mindset and mindfulness. I prefer to reschedule things. And I know some people, from a business point of view, might think that's ridiculous, but for my business, it runs better when I photograph from a place where I have energy rather than being totally exhausted, and my creativity and the end result are just totally different.
INTENTIONAL…
I'm really intentional, as in there have been a lot of years where I booked way too many sessions within a month. So I'm constantly looking at that and making sure that I'm not going into burnout.
And it happened to me recently.
I'm not perfect, and it still sneaks up on me sometimes.
The energy I had in my 30s, and even late 30s, is so different now, at nearly 43. I can't do three shoots in a day and drive from one end of Sydney to the other. I just end up feeling totally depleted.
So I'm intentional with my clients now by making sure I carve out time where I know that I've got the energy for it.
If it's period week or I'm feeling really depleted, I don't have a problem with ringing my client and moving things around if it means I'll get a better result.
Obviously, I can't always do that if it's a maternity shoot and they're almost due. On days like that, I will sit back, meditate, and make sure I've nourished myself before the session, and again afterwards.
LET’S HAVE A CUP OF TEA…
Sometimes my sessions are 90 minutes. Sometimes they're 60 minutes
Sometimes I'm there for two hours. I feel like I can just sense when it's enough.
I think I'm very in tune with people. I've always been one of those people who can walk into a room, say, at a party, and I can tell which one of my friends is off or which one's not feeling right. I've always been very empathetic; I've always had that.
And I feel like that comes into this. That feeling is exactly the same when I am with my clients as well.
I don't feel like my energy crashes during a session. I feel like I catch it before I get to that point these days.
But there are clues I look for, like the conversation slowing and the buzz kind of starting to fade.
I just feel it. I feel it at the time, I can just feel it in my body. I can feel their energy shift.
And that's when I just slow it down and be like, let's have a cup of tea, or say “I'm gonna head off”.
RECHARGING…
I need time to recharge these days.
I used to be bouncing off the walls.
Now I am going into the perimenopausal phase, and my batteries are just depleted.
I've got a young child; I had him late. He is nearly 4 years old, and I'm nearly 43.
So my energy levels just aren't the same, and I'm doing all the things to help myself, like acupuncture, not drinking, and making sure I get rest and sleep.
I don't get the bouncing off the wall feeling anymore. I've been doing this for over 20 years now, and it's not monotone. I still get excited, but I'm more excited when I see other businesses I've mentored thrive.
I think that's where my energy is going now.
MOTHERHOOD…
Motherhood is definitely changing my energy. It's definitely been harder than what I expected.
I've always been someone who could do 10 things in a day and still feel hyperactive. But I'm not anymore since becoming a mum. That's been something I've been down about, and I've had to readjust. I'm still working on it
My doctor said to me, I've got a very holistic doctor who's beautiful, that I've got to let go of the feeling that I'm going to feel like I did before I had Cash, my son.
I'm working with an acupuncturist and naturopath, and a couple of times a year, I see a holistic psychologist. I'm a big believer that if you look after yourself, there’s a ripple effect on everyone around you, and everything around you is better.
These are the things that have become super important for me as a mother.
REST IS…
Rest for me is when I am bored, and I am learning to be bored again. I'm someone who can fill up my day. I don't get bored ever in life. But I've been talking to my acupuncturist about it and how I need to learn to be bored. I am relearning to just sit, watch the grass grow, and look at the clouds. That feeling.
How lucky am I that I can just walk down one minute from my house and just sit and watch the ocean? But I always filled my days with yoga or doing three shoots a day. Meeting up with friends for coffee and different bits and pieces was just so easy, and I loved it. But I can't do that anymore.
So, for me right now, rest is being bored and learning to enjoy that.
I CAN’T BE CREATIVE WHEN I AM RUSHING…
I think space is a way I can nurture creativity and rest as well. I can't be creative when I'm depleted, and I've been very depleted lately.
For example, I've been wanting to launch my education website for over six months, and I've just frozen. There are just some bits and pieces I need to finish, but my creativity is just not there. I don't have the energy for it. So I've just been waiting for it, giving it the space to come back, so I can finish it off. And I think that's what I'm learning as I get older.
It's okay to wait. I was going to launch it in January, and now it's nearly halfway through the year. So I think for me it's being slow, and we rush through life so much, and I can't be creative when I'm rushing.
