My artwork enriches my commercial work and visa versa. Photography is at the core of my artwork.
I have a Master Fine Arts from Massey University Wellington.
My current artwork centres around two key themes. Firstly the exploration of photography and dance and the long-standing symbiotic relationship between photographer and dancer.
Secondly the exploration of universal questions such as my work with the themes of ‘self similarity’ (a self-similar object is exactly or approximately similar to a part of itself i.e. the whole has the same shape as one or more of the parts).
Alongside my previous career(s) in performing arts management I specialised in dance, theatre and music photography. Having worked at Sadlers Wells Theatre, London, St James Theatre and Opera House, Wellington, NZ, Tempo Dance Festival, NZ, Erupt Arts Festival, Taupo, NZ and the Royal New Zealand Ballet. I have had the privilege of photographing some of the worlds greatest dancers and dance companies including the Royal Ballet, Pina Bausch’s Tans Theatr Wuppertal, Nederlands Dans Theater, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the New Zealand Dance Company, Atamira Dance Company, Footnote Dance NZ and many established and emerging New Zealand dance artists. I created the hero dance images for Tempo Dance Festival 2012, 2013, 2014 and Erupt Arts Festival 2014.
When not photographing the stars of the stage I am shooting the stars of the sky with astro-photography. Two recent works, 'The Blue Dot' and 'Mikro Kosmos' explored our place in the universe, scale and themes of ‘self-similarity’.
I photographed from an early age, learning from my father, John Walmsley, a distinguished fashion and portrait photographer in London and owner of the photographic studio Bassano Vandyk Elliott & Fry through the 1950s – 1970s.
My first camera was a box Brownie, progressing to the classic Zenit E and then to Canon film and digital. I currently shoot on two Canon 5DIII cameras and Canon 24-105mm, 100mm macro and 70-200mm L series lenses.
My early photographic studies were at Brighton College, UK and I completed my Master of Fine Arts (Photography) in 2017 at Massey University, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. My work has been exhibited at the St James Theatre, Exposure 2017, Auckland Festival of Photography 2018, cover feature in DANZ magazine Summer Issue, 2018 and Artists of Bannockburn 2018, 2019 & 2020.
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