It was such a pleasure to see my Art work selected by Australian Camera magazine to feature on the cover for AIPP Silver Lining Awards winner announcement.

It all started before the pandemic when I challenged myself to create an image using white body paint over a white background. I prepared all the materials I needed and was in the process of finalising the idea and finding the model when everything with the lock-downs and border closure was turned upside down.

I suddenly found myself disconnected from my mother and sister, each of us living at one corner of the world. I was watching the news and hearing scary updates from where my mum lives. Remembering the promise I gave to my dad in his last days to protect her and support her, it made me feel powerless, scared and helpless. The grief of losing my dad had ignited inside me once again.

One of those days when I was feeling depressed, I decided to paint myself, put the camera on timer, and capture all the emotions I had. There was no plan to do anything with those photos, I just wanted to capture all my feelings. When I was working on my submissions for the Silver Lining Awards, I was going through all these images and decided to do something with them, an image to express all my feelings: fear of loss, feeling helpless, and confronting loss.