15 Questions With… Morganna Magee

How are you at the moment?

All is well here, settling into a cold winter and some downtime.

What is your morning ritual? How does your day begin?

Mornings are my favourite time of the day and when I make most of my work. I start every day by walking my dog in the bushland near my house. He’s a big boy but quite nervous around people so I have to walk him early when no one is around. I use this time to photograph as the landscape still feels untouched in the early morning, with all the cobwebs still fresh on the trees and the world feels like it just me, my dog, and sleepy kangaroos.

What, right now, can you see?

I’m looking out the window to the garden I started 2 years ago, quietly chuffed to have kept it alive.

What artist, project, book would you recommend we see/follow?

I became acquainted with Sara Silks work last year. Everything she makes is alchemic, I could stare at her work all day long.

Spreads from Extraordinary Experiences (Tall Poppy Press, 2022)

Tell us about your process when starting a new project

Photography has shifted from being very research driven for me into something intuitive. Or rather, the way I research is different. When my practice was more documentary based new projects involved a lot of communication. My work has shifted in the last few years and now I find new projects come to me when I am out in nature. Being alone in the bush I find inspiration everywhere.  I have always prioritised finding wild places where I live, it’s an unexplainable need that I have and part of the reason I never liked living in the city. As crazy as it sounds, it took 20 years of being in nature to start photographing it. 

What has been your favourite collaboration?

I’m currently working on a collaboration with my friend Aletheia Casey around colonisation and identity. The project also plays with authorship and is a chance for us both to extend ourselves are artists. It’s early days but we are hoping to release the work as a book eventually. I met Aletheia when we both taught at the same university years ago.  She is one of my favourite artists so it’s a joy to work with her.

What is your greatest achievement?

Anytime someone I respect says something about my work, be it good or bad, it means so much to have their attention on what I do.

What is your greatest regret?

Letting self doubt stop me. The internal monologue that I wasn’t good enough was very loud for a long while.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Keep working, you’ll get there.

What is your latest project about?

I began Extraordinary Experiences (Tall Poppy Press, 2022) after a conversation with a dear friend whose first experience of death was very traumatic. I wanted to talk her through some of the physical effects I felt of grief after my father died when I was 25.  There are some widely known symptoms of grief but in addition there are a series of phenomena called “ extraordinary experiences” that cause physiological disruptions to the bereaved. Quite often, within a few months of someone dying, you will see them. When it happened to me, it was as if my father was projected onto another man I saw in passing.  It shook me to the core and I’ve never forgotten that feeling.

This work stems from that feeling of seeing something and not quite knowing if it’s real, even if it is familiar.

Haunting to me is intrinsically tied to photography- it is the remnants that are left that photographers are trying to hold onto. A lot of my work now is pre-occupied with the beauty of melancholy, a state of being that is frowned upon in modern life that has places positivity and happiness as the goal to which we all need to reach. For me personally, that’s not realistic, so being able to celebrate the beauty in the cold, lonely moments in which the world seems full of pathos has become the main driver of my work.

What are you researching at the moment?

I’ve been researching the erasure of Irish Folk magic through the colonisation of Australia. My father was Irish and I want to use this project as a way to connect with that part of my identity.

What can you not work without?

Pockets; I never have assistants—shooting with large format cameras and carrying everything is the hardest part.

What challenges have you faced working in your industry?

I’ve jumped from photojournalism to documentary and now academia. Each has it’s own quirks but they all need consistent hard work. It can feel very easy to get left behind so keeping up my energy in the face of rejection is the hardest thing.

What are you hoping for the remainder of the year?

To become a more proficient horse rider and to keep making photos I like.

Share a song with us, what are you listening to at the moment?

Gracias a la vida – the Kacey Musgraves cover. Makes me cry.

All images Morganna Magee. Extraordinary Experiences is available to purchase here.