Karen Waller

Karen Waller

I am a photographer based in Adelaide, South Australia. I maintain strong connections to the Yorke Peninsula through family ties, creative collaborations, and the facilitation of workshops. My portfolio spans portrait, nature, landscape, and aerial photography, with particular emphasis in recent years on long exposure and ICM techniques applied across multiple genres. I am thankful that creativity gives my life meaning, helps me connect with others, and brings fulfilment.

karenwaller.com.au

Michéla Griffith

In 2012 I paused by my local river and everything changed. I’ve moved away from what many expect photographs to be; my images reflect the curiosity that water has inspired in my practice. The river has been my conduit: it has sharpened my vision, given me permission to experiment and continues to introduce me to new ways of seeing. Website

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Photography, in the form of Polaroid film, first fascinated Karen Waller for its immediacy. She has developed a diverse practice which incorporates landscape and portraiture, but throughout is informed by a desire for simplicity. Her images explore ways of making marks, and the passage of time. She is able to draw on a rural upbringing in South Australia, with its frequent moves, that nurtured resilience and empathy for those that may be perceived as outsiders as well as a connection with nature. Inspired by Australian art, she continues to look for ways of rendering landscapes she knew in childhood in a painterly manner through aerial abstraction, long exposures, and ICM.

Would you like to start by telling readers a little about yourself – where you grew up, what your early interests were, and what you went on to do?

I was born in a county town called Berri, on the River Murray in South Australia. My dad worked in the State Bank of South Australia, and his career meant a childhood of moving to a new town almost yearly and attending seven primary schools in rural parts of this state. My connection to Berri and the Riverland continued as I grew up, as my grandparents lived in Monash. It was a childhood spent fishing in the tinny and yabbying (small freshwater crayfish) with a piece of meat tied to string. So much of what we ate came from the river. My time on those visits was spent with my grandfather, dad, brother, uncle, and the dog, all crammed into the blue Volkswagen Beetle as we headed to the river with the tinnie in tow. It was a time before introduced species such as the European carp filled the river.

Each time we moved, I had to repeatedly face the challenge of making new friends. This experience gave me empathy for outsiders having lived the experience. When a place started to feel like home, we had to move. Against the backdrop of continually being uprooted, I was lucky enough to experience diverse environments and exposure to nature within our state. I just loved exploring creeks and waterways, catching yabbies, fish, and the occasional tortoise. Leeches were an ever-present annoyance. We built cubby houses in the scrub and roamed freely exploring the world without fear.