‘Unfiltered’ was a lovely experience. The Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre found 12 women photographers to attend a workshop and mount a portrait exhibition for the month around International Womens Day. Photographer Christine Hall was on hand to sort out photographic or artistic issues, and Andrea to organise us. We all turned up with our cameras and tripods and were divided into pairs – to take photos of each other. It was a small protest about the pressures of social media on women – the push to look younger, more beautiful, the adverse affects, especially for the younger women, of needing the perfect body. We were to take photos of each other in black and white and with no make up.

I worked with Mary McGilvray and probably gave her a bit of a challenge – I was no beauty and had misgivings about my advancing age. Mary dealt with this easily. I used my Canon 5D Mk III as it could be set to take black and white photography, but we actually shot in colour and Christine put her magic touch on the results to keep consistency in tone.

Above photo’s courtesy of Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre.

I missed the opening – as a matter fact I was beginning to think I might miss the exhibition altogether! I was away in southern NSW for a month. I knew I would miss the cocktail party scheduled for International Womens Day – but so would everyone else as along came Cyclone Alfred and it was cancelled. Queensland can be difficult early in the year. I made it back with a few days to spare and I was very impressed with the work on the wall.