Local News: An evolving talent

Since graduating from the Photography Studies College (PSC) three years ago, the career of 25-year-old freelance photographer Steph Doran continues to reach new heights.

Shortly after completing an Advanced Diploma in Photography in 2012, Steph said she was both surprised and delighted to be chosen as emerging photographer at the prestigious Blue Tree Studios in Port Melbourne.

“I was first, like, really? You want me to do that? I thought they’d pick the best person from RMIT or PSC not just me, but they picked me!” she said.

“I was given a studio to shoot in, access to equipment, you can assist, you can get feedback and they’ll introduce you to the right people and things like that, so that has been amazing.”

Having since earned widespread recognition for her work, which has included being selected for the Raw Awakening Showcase in 2014 as well as the cover of Freque Magazine, Steph said she felt her greatest achievement had simply been earning money for doing what she loved.

More importantly however, she said the opportunity to work across a range of themes and styles in a professional environment at Blue Tree Studio had provided a platform for her to refine her own style considerably.

“When I was studying I suppose I never really wanted to do fashion because everyone’s thing is ‘oh I want to be a fashion photographer’ and I thought no I don’t want to do that,” she said.

“I wanted to be more creative and sort of go into the artistic side of things a bit more but once I found out how I could apply that sort of creativity to doing fashion I fell in love with it.”

With a background in drawing and painting, she said working in photography had helped her realise her true passion for conceptual fashion photography.

She described her style as something, which was “continually evolving”, and which aimed to bring narrative to life.

“I would say that my style is very polished, it’s a bit quirky, interesting hopefully and I try and take things from a different perspective or different approach that others might use.”

“I really like to include symbolism or a metaphor or a back-story in my work so I really like to work in a narrative style.”

While her career continues to go from strength to strength here in Australia, she said she was looking forward to travelling to London next year in an attempt to break into the European market.

“I feel like my work doesn’t really have that Australian look about it,” she said. “It’s a bit different, which has been both a good thing and a little bit of a challenge trying to get it out there and trying to get people to appreciate it.”

“Melbourne and Sydney are obviously the two biggest markets here but in comparison to London or New York it’s pretty little so I want to try and break into that market.”

As well as teaching outdoor photography classes, Steph is also a Photography Studies College ambassador and enjoys regularly speaking to students and showing them around Blue Tree Studios.

She said she was only too happy to give back to PSC as it had provided her with a wonderful platform to realise her passion.

“I loved studying at PSC I really liked coming to class and I like that it felt like a family,” she said.

“You just kind of fit in and knew everybody because it was very small. It’s not like a big institution and I really liked that you could get a lot of feedback and help and you had that support network there.”