Coming Up For Air: How This Experience Came To Be

Manly beach underwater sunset

Every now and then, an idea arrives not through a business plan, but through life itself. At the time, I had already spent years creating underwater photography in Sydney and photographing people during significant moments in their lives. What I hadn't considered was how underwater photography itself could become part of a meaningful process of reflection and transformation. Coming Up For Air began during a period when I was facing my own challenges. Like most difficult seasons in life, there wasn't one defining moment. It felt (and still feels) like a major war campaign (what I jokingly refer to as Operation Discomfort Fury ) with many battles. There were lessons, setbacks, growth, victories and losses. During one of those battles, I reached a point where I knew it was time to move forward.

I remember feeling ready to leave a particular chapter behind. Not forget it or pretend it never happened, but acknowledge it, learn from it, and consciously step away from it while opening myself to whatever came next. I found myself thinking about creating some kind of ritual to mark that moment. Nothing elaborate or overly spiritual. Just something intentional.

For me, the answer was water. The idea was simple: say a few words, enter the water, spend some time immersed in nature, and emerge feeling refreshed, renewed, and ready for what was next. The more I reflected on it, the more it made sense because across cultures and throughout history, water has carried deep symbolic meaning. Water gives life. We begin our lives surrounded by it in our mother's womb. Our bodies are made largely of it. Our survival depends on it. It has long been associated with renewal, purification, and transformation.

In Christianity, baptism symbolises rebirth and the beginning of a new life. In Hinduism, bathing in sacred rivers is believed to cleanse and heal. In Islam, water is used for purification before prayer, removing both physical and spiritual impurities. Even beyond religion, most of us instinctively understand the feeling of stepping into the ocean after a difficult time and somehow feeling lighter afterwards.

There is something powerful about water. That simple ritual helped me break a pattern I had been stuck in. It allowed me to acknowledge what had happened, let go of what no longer served me, and move forward with greater clarity. But there was one thing missing. There was nothing tangible to remember that moment by. That's the challenge of being the person behind the camera. I had the experience, but I didn't have the artwork.

The Moment It Became More Than My Story

Recently, a couple of people approached me who were going through major life transitions of their own. One said:

"I feel like this will be symbolic of me finally coming up for air after feeling like being held down underwater during a particularly difficult time in life."

And just like that, she unknowingly gave the experience its name. Another person said:

"If there's anything that comes from all this pain, I want this artwork to represent what I went through and how I came out the other side."

Those conversations changed something. As an underwater photographer, I understand how to create beautiful images. But this was different. The photographs weren't simply documenting a person in nature. They were capturing a moment of transformation.

With the people I work with, I intentionally use the elements available to us to create images that hold meaning and symbolism for that individual:

• Water

• Light

• Colour

• Movement

• Expression

• Stillness

• Emotion

• Composition

The goal isn't simply to create portraits. It is to create artwork connected to a meaningful point in someone's life. This showed me what was possible when photography becomes more than photography.

An Unexpected Connection

Over the last few years, I've found myself moving into spaces I never expected. I've become involved in playing guitar at meditation and healing retreats. I've also spent time learning to facilitate at these retreats, helping people reflect, release, grow, and integrate change.

A funny fact that not many people know about me is that I actually have a degree in Film, and my second major was Religious Studies. I've never considered myself an overtly spiritual person. My mother is Buddhist. My father was Catholic. I don't actively practise either faith. You won't see me doing the sign of the cross or bowing to Buddhist monks. Yet somehow both traditions have shaped my life and values.

Looking back, it feels like all these seemingly unrelated threads have gradually woven themselves together.

Photography.

Storytelling.

Transformation.

Water.

Ritual.

Personal growth.

All of it emerging during what has been, without question, the most challenging period of my life. A period that was self-inflicted—not in a destructive way, but because I deliberately chose to create significant change in order to build the life I wanted. It's not over yet, but I'm on track. I don’t enjoy the discomfort, but I know the life I want exists on the other side of it. The truth is that meaningful change rarely feels graceful while you're going through it. It's uncomfortable, uncertain, messy, and it hurts sometimes. It's been bloody hard. And yet that's where growth happens. But now I’m having more and more great moments. One of my favourite quotes captures it perfectly:

"All change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and glorious at the end."

The Ritual Behind Coming Up For Air

Before each Coming Up For Air session, we begin with a conversation. We discuss your story, what you're celebrating, what you're overcoming, what you're stepping into. Together, we develop a concept. It can be simple and understated, or we can get highly creative. Then, on the shoot, before entering the water, we take a moment to acknowledge that intention. Nothing complicated or performative - just a brief pause to recognise why we're here. Then we enter the water to create the images and artwork. And when we emerge, the experience is complete.

More Than A Portrait Session

Coming Up For Air isn't for everyone. Some people simply want beautiful underwater photographs, and that's exactly why I offer standard underwater portrait sessions in Sydney. Coming Up For Air is something different. It's for people who want to mark a moment. That moment might be a pregnancy, where a few words are spoken to acknowledge and welcome the new life coming into the world. It might be a milestone birthday, a major achievement, a difficult season, a personal loss, a recovery, a fresh start, or a significant life transition.

Whatever the story, these are moments worth acknowledging rather than simply moving past. It's an opportunity to create artwork that represents not only how you looked at a particular point in your life, but what that moment meant. Because some experiences deserve more than a memory. They deserve to be acknowledged, and sometimes, they deserve to be transformed into art.