From pop star to photographer

By Elliana Saltalamacchia

Jade Soldati said photography has always surrounded her, but it wasn’t until two years ago when she finally decided to take it up.

Ms Soldati was in the music industry for almost 20 years in a girl pop band named Trinity.

But now the 48-year-old is two years into her Advanced Diploma of Photography at the Photography Studies College (PSC) in Southbank.

She said photography was always around her because being a singer meant she was always in front of the camera.

“When I was quite young, photography always followed me, but I didn’t feel like I connected with it until a little bit later in life,” she said.  “A few years ago it came together and here I am.”

Ms Soldati said her photography took many directions but a lot of her work was inspired by futurism.

“A lot of my work is futuristic based and thought-provoking, pulling you into thinking about the imagery that I’m creating,” she said.

Her series Totalitarian is inspired by stories her father told her during her childhood about the German occupation and concentration camps. She said she combined this with her interest in futurism to create the series.

Her Totalitarian series was published in New York fashion magazine Promo in September.

“There’s about six images double-spread, it was very exciting,” she said.

Ms Soldati also said she wanted to get more of her work featured in magazines, including getting her Frequency series into some science-fiction magazines.

Her Frequency folio captures in photographs the white noise taken from analogue television.

She also said she wanted to embark on an indigenous series next year, and wants to connect Australians with their country through her photography.

“There doesn’t seem to be a connection with our land when we’re all born here and I want to explore that,” she said.

Ms Soldati also said she loves studying at PSC.

“I love it here. Everyone is very friendly, very supportive and very knowledgeable. The teachers are incredible,” she said.

She also said that, like music, she loves the creative aspect of photography.

“I connect to it completely on a creative level,” she said.

But she said she was still not sure what she wants to do with her diploma upon completion.

“If I was to really think about which direction to go in, it would be the art world. I want to express more of my futuristic concepts and get them in more magazines,” she said,

But she said now that she had begun photography she saw herself doing it forever.

“I will always photograph from this point on, I can’t help myself,” she said.  “It’s never too late to do anything.”