Wendy Coombes
CCP asks Wendy Coombes the deep questions about her craft
What gets you out of bed every day?
I love my life and I’m in a hurry to experience it to the fullest. Life itself has taught me how fleeting it can be.
2. Who is the photographer/artist that has inspired you the most?
Impossible to limit it to just one. But the first one that comes to mind always is Irving Penn for his still life work and flowers.
I also am a fan of Andrew Zuckerman’s work which covers a really broad spectrum I love his creatures, floral and seed series. It is the detail and singular focus on the subject that I find captivating.
Closer to home I love the work of Anne Zahalka and Tamara Dean.
For my more dramatic dark and moody still life compositions, I am inspired by the Dutch Masters and painters like Caravaggio.
3. What current camera are you shooting with?
I made the switch from DLSR to Mirrorless a few years ago and I now shoot with the Canon R5. The electronic viewfinder in particular has been a game changer for me. Any photographer who wears reading glasses knows how tedious it gets when you are constantly taking glasses off when looking through the viewfinder only to have to put them back on to review the image or change a setting.
4. When you are on a shoot do you play music? What other essential items do you have with you for a successful session?
Silence is golden. I often find music distracts me. The only time I might listen to music while I work is while I do post shoot editing and even then it is very much a background thing. My favourite playlist while editing is Lang Lang’s piano music (Liszt) - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5DC7hqFQVGLBZu1HM4iJnd?si=7ee789a6373045fa
Essential items for my still-life sessions include - props, flowers and a host of floristry paraphernalia as well as my laptop, tripod and tether cable.
5. In the digital world how important is the print?
For me it is very important. Nowadays I create with print in mind.
I see printing very much as a part of the creative process. The selection of the paper, the format, the colours (or mono) and the frame, they are all creative decisions.
To see your work in print is like seeing it anew. It is quite the thrill.
Printing also serves the purpose of critically reviewing/assessing the image. Looking at it at different times of the day and in different lights. “Sitting with” a work over the course of a week or maybe weeks means I might see things that I had not observed when first seeing the print. I might want to make further edits to before I put it out into the world as a limited edition. In that way it is also an essential part of my practice.
6. B/W - Colour - Analogue - Digital.
Put these words in your order of preference and tell us why.
1. Digital
2. Colour
3. B/W
4. Analogue
Film or Digital?
I love the immediacy of digital as well as the accessibility. Also my situation is that I simply do not have the set up to shoot on film.
Ironically what appeals to be about film photography is the lack of immediacy. Taking more time for each shot and being patient while the film is being developed. There is a lot to be said for the mindfulness that comes with the shooting on film.
Colour or B/W?
I put colour before B/W but I actually do love B/W and it is the choice is dependent on what I want to communicate in my work. One of my favourite subjects are flowers. Often, I want my work to express joy and I really want the colours to shine. On the other hand, if I want to show the flowers’ line or structure, I probably favour B/W.
7. Have you exhibited your work, and other than the print, how important was the framing process to you?
Yes I did the Other Art Fair in October last year. I wanted to show my Camargue series that I shot in May 2024 in the South of France. Camargue is famous for amongst other things their White Horses. With that series I wanted to show the cohesion and nobility of the horses and the sense of calm they give off. I opted for B/W prints and Iain was immensely helpful in assisting with the framing and not only that he also generously advised me on the hanging lay-out and which works to print etc.
8. What defines a great image?
If an image sparks a feeling (positive or otherwise) or moves me in some way I would consider it a success. For me, a great image is less about it being technically a 10/10 and more how it makes me feel.
I think that is what is so powerful about photography. We can communicate everything that needs to be said without ever uttering a word and we are probably being heard more clearly.
In that way the role of photographers and other visual artists alike is as important today as it has ever been.
9. What is your favourite photo? Why?
Not sure it is the most favourite but some of my most memorable shots were the ones I took for a series that I titled “Untamed”. I came to create the series while I was in Norway’s Jotumheimen region, a remote wilderness region. My partner and I were to begin a week-long cabin to cabin hiking trip but less than an hour after we set off I fell and broke my wrist. So, my left arm in a cast, that was the end as far as hiking was concerned for me but I managed to take photo’s so while my partner went off on his hikes I took photos.
While I would have rather not broken my wrist. It forced me to slow down and I feel that the calm and remoteness of the region comes through in the work.
10. What is the best photography advice you have been given? Tell us by who if you can or want to?
So much and by so many. I love learning and continue to seek out photographers whose work I admire. I study their work and try to imagine how they took the shot.
11. When you are not taking photos, what are you doing?
I’m keeping relatively active walking my two rescue dogs, taking Pilates classes and I swim. I also love reading and I volunteer at the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf.
High Point
Being commissioned to create a series of art shots for a well-known high-end furniture retailer. They have selected 5 works that will be available in their showrooms around Australia and NZ.
Also being invited to join the group exhibition Above, Below and Beyond at Charing Cross Gallery. To be in the company of so many artists I have admired for so long was truly exciting.
Low Point
Low points are part and parcel of our growth as people and artists. I try to look at them as learning opportunities but I try not to dwell on them.
This year I will run beginners workshops as well as One on One coaching for budding photographers. If interested, please email me at:
hello@wendycoombesphotography.com
Wendy Coombes
March 2025
