Sarah Rhodes is a photographer and thinker currently based in Launceston, lutruwita/Tasmania. I met Sarah through past Local guest, Dave Carswell. Sarah was seeking subjects for her PhD project, A Surrounded Beauty, and I’m always seeking interesting people to talk to. So! We made a trade.

Sarah discusses going to the tip with her father in too small gumboots, home being where the heart is, coming from “island people”, the idea that the gifts you give your children shape them, slow processing of events and meanings, the time it takes to make a decision, getting ready, not having a clear path but instead collecting building blocks, the point of it all, finding “the real”, work about others reflecting the self, the natural world tapping into what is human, being in nature providing the opportunity to drop expectation, wildness, psychological wildness, not being ready to understand, nature having an inherent violence, tension between solitude providing creative drive while also offering a looming loneliness, city spaces vs regional spaces and understanding contentment through self-containment.