Numerology Series

My mother has always had a keen interest in things like feng shui and numerology. Earlier this year I took some time to investigate what her tiny numerology book had to say about me and my "number". I am a two (a person born on the 2nd, 11th, 20th or 29th of any month). After discovering, to my surprise, how accurate the statements were regarding my personality and even little life facts (such as my career, my finances and my health) it became a topic that I studied even further. When the We Heart Numbers Exhibition was still in its planning stages, I already had my heart set on what I wanted to do.

THE SERIES
The Numerology series concentrates on nine creatives, all of whom are active within their industries, passionately striving to produce better work, influencing the industry in their very own way. Some of my subjects were friends or old contacts, whilst others I had never physically met before, creatives I had simply admired from afar (and on the interwebs). When I was first emailing these creatives in February/March, I feared that I would get a negative response (after all, it's not every day you get a total stranger asking to take photos of you in random locations): to my absolute gratitude and pleasure, they were all more than happy to participate in the project.

I gave them no prior direction when being photographed; the entire aim of the series was to truly communicate their personalities with little external influence and later analyse this with what I had read about their birth number. I also asked them to select their location, as this in itself says so much about a person. Their locations all had an impact on their final portraits, truly reinforcing their personality traits.

I initially wanted to design custom typographic numbers that were based on the qualities of each creative, but for the sake of my sanity and due to limited time, I settled for choosing numerals from already existing typefaces. These numbers were all carefully chosen and considered to ensure they remained as true as possible to the people behind the portraits.

I have been working on a summary of the definitions behind each number, but due to work and multiple commitments I haven't yet had a chance to complete this, and I couldn't wait any longer to share the series here.

Due to my great interest in my own number, I decided that the portrait for Number Two would be a self-portrait. My room in itself has always strongly portrayed a sense of who I am, thus my choice of location. Taking a self portrait was also somewhat of a personal challenge—as a person so used to being comfortable and confident behind the camera, I knew this was bound to throw me out of my zone, especially as it wasn't just any old portrait: it was to say something about me, to reveal myself as I truly am, a vulnerability I would need to overcome.

On a separate note, unfortunately I was unable to take a new, more recent photo of Hazel Dooney, one of the Asia-Pacific's most brilliant, controversial and successful artists, however I found that the photo I took of Hazel at TEDx Brisbane last year simply said it all.

I admire each individual's tenacity and active presence in their respective industries; they are all extremely talented, to say the least, and I could not have asked for a better group of creatives to work with. You should note that those photographed below are all under the age of 35 and either run their own creative business successfully as their sole source of income, are highly successful in their professional role, or both. I cannot thank them enough for their time and commitment to being my subjects for this project:

1. Chris Bouffler, Graphic Designer
2. N/A
3. Rachel Aust, Fashion Photographer
4. Alex Langridge, Filmmaker/Colourist
5. Erik Veland, Web Designer
6. Anja Ali-Haapala, Dancer
7. Ally May Carey, Fashion Blogger/Model
8. Liss Winnel, Fashion Blogger
9. Hazel Dooney, Artist.

Please feel free to email me directly if you have any questions, comments or feedback about the series or anything related to the topic at all: hello [at] camille-nathania.com.