Living Daylight

Living Daylight documents a transition into adulthood shaped by vulnerability, grief, and the quiet pressure of responsibility. Utilising stark sun-drenched images, the work explores what it means to exist in youth while fearing its inevitable fading.

Living Daylight exists as a reflection and documentation on the journey into adulthood, shaped by fear and grief, shifting relationships, and the quiet pressure of accepting change. In light of the 10-year anniversary of a friend’s death, as well as the process of becoming a biological father, this project reflects on the fear of losing youth that once felt permanent, alongside acknowledging its vitality and joy.

Drawing from the phrase 'scaring the living daylights,’ this project explores the silent uncertainty and grief that come by questioning the meaning of natural growth. Following the slow enveloping of adulthood, it exists as a desire to protest against time’s inevitable momentum and the burden of developing responsibility. To savour what still feels soft, unresolved, and alive as well as to linger in youth’s fragile intensity. It also asks what it means to exist within such tender light while fearing its inevitable fading.

Using contrasting and often stark sunlight to accentuate the emotional extremities of youth, the images portray optimism alongside anxiety, clarity beside doubt, and joy coexisting with grief. Webs of branches and leaves emerge intertwined with portraits depicting intimate relationships, symbolic fruit, and domestic scenes in differing states of decay. As responsibilities, expectations, and distance reshape relationships, the viewer is asked if identity and acceptance can be found individually or among the collective.

The images do not attempt to offer a resolution but remain in tension. Without location or temporality, the works frame the journey into adulthood as a question formed by experience and relationships. Evoking a sense of pathos bathed in the harsh Australian sun, Living Daylight permanently etches the experience of fading youth into the ever-present day.