Tara is an aspiring photojournalist. At the time of receiving the bursary, Tara had just completed year 11 at Hellyer College. Through her photography she seeks to tell stories which preserve people and places within local communities.
Tara has a passionate interest in history, which led her to develop her Burnie Identities body of work. She loves to hear and share people’s stories. This led her to develop the photographic series, which includes images of artists in their studios, business owners in their workplaces and volunteer workers in the place where they contribute their time and energy to help those within the community.
Since her senior years at Parklands High School, Tara has been developing her skill set. This has included learning from others, seeking work placements at The Advocate Newspaper, and her own experimentation within the medium. The style she now favours is that of documentary images, mostly in black and white.
Her achievements to date have included being published in both The Advocate and The Examiner newspapers. She was also recently announced as the under 18 winner of The Advocate Newspaper Reader Snapshot competition. Her Future Leaders series (completed during Year 10) showcased students from Parklands High School who were future leaders of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. This series is now on permanent display in the front office at Parklands High School.
On receiving the bursary, Tara commented: ‘…this bursary is going to help me continue to capture the connections that so many people have to Burnie. Burnie has been the main focus of my work since I started photography early last year, so to be able to receive support like this locally is fantastic! I aim to continue documenting identities within Burnie, mainly people who have had significant contributions to this fantastic community throughout their lives. I'm beyond excited to have received the bursary and I can't wait to put it to good use!’
Tara would ultimately like to produce a book from her Burnie Identities series. The Bursary will assist her in purchasing equipment and continuing to develop her skills ‘…in order to keep telling crucial stories in a way that is accessible to a vast audience and provides joy and ‘a moment in time’ for the subject, immortalising them and their story as an individual and member of our thriving Burnie community.