Today we’d like to introduce you to Franca Turrin
Hi Franca , we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Photography has always been present in my life. I am the daughter of an Italian migrant builder who documented our life in Australia and travels on his treasured Super 8, which he bought in Bangkok on his maiden voyage to Australia. At seven he gave me his old Kodak 35mm film camera and that was the beginning that never ended!
Being a daughter of migrants a job in the creative industry was not encouraged and despite my love for my craft I did a degree in languages at Sydney University. However, the moment I graduated I pursed a career in photography. I started as an assistant in the advertising industry, then completed another degree in Visual Communications in Photography from RMIT with a major in early digital photography, using Adobe Photoshop 1.5 (before layers!). This created the opportunity to assist some of Australia’s most renowned advertising photographers during the 90’s. After a few years, I left and established my own business as a portrait photographer. I also worked as a digital retoucher for other photographers and agencies. I ran this business for 15 years until the death of my father. After which, personal circumstances meant a hiatus in my professional photography practice.
In 2018, I resumed my practice with a sharper focus on fine art photography. Since then, I have been involved in the NFT field, Digital Placemaking exhibitions, a finalist in Australia’s most renowned Australian National Photographic Portrait Prize, published in various magazines and have been recently invited to participate in an exhibition at the Royal Botanical Gardens in 2025.
As a commercial photographer / retoucher I have spent a lot of time working with digital mediums and Adobe Photoshop. This has meant that in my own practice I enjoy the very realness, with all its limitations, of using only a camera and traditional photography techniques, to take the very real and authentic and imbue it with an otherworldly quality. All my work is purely photographic, all in camera, single exposures, and using various light sources. In the spirit of wabi-sabi this process means that no two images are alike. Each work uniquely captures the imperfect and transient.
My mother, daughter of a long line of Italian farmers instilled within me a love for the environment and botanicals. My parents and their tenacity and resilience opened me to a slow way of life, an appreciation for the under recognised. My work explores the overlooked beauty of the everyday, unconventional beauties. It explores the ebbs and flows of time, country, and its people, from bush fires to floods to futuristic celestial iterations. It is a still ode to the quite beauty that surrounds this unique environment, cloaked in impermanence and imperfection.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Following creative endeavours is never a smooth road but is is very much this unease the creates dimension. For all its struggles, it has been an enriching road. To work as a creative, you must wear many hats, publicist, copy writer, marketing guru, accountant….
Some hats I’m better at wearing than others! And occasionally, it is hard not to resent the time they take away from the making but it does create opportunity for many different experiences. I have meet some of the most amazing people, and made connections near and far, that I hold dear. I have done things completely out of my comfort zone because I had a camera as my armour. It has saved me so many times and is very much my raison d’être. But, what I love most is, it has given me a child-like sense of wonder.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My work is a quest for authenticity and is a medium through which I convey raw ethereal beauty and imperfection. The images are more than just pictures; they are narratives that encapsulate transient moments and evoke a sense of vast, celestial wonder. For me, each work is like a story, intricately connected to the grand tapestry of life’s impermanence both in my portraiture and still life.
I am best known for my botanical works. They illustrate the overlooked beauty of the everyday and reimagine a futuristic celestial world through the lens of colour and light. My themes are derived from the Australian landscape and flora. What sets my work apart is my love for and use of unique Australian flora, unconventional in its beauty. My technique is unusual in this changing digital / ai landscape, as my images are purely photographic, all in camera, single exposures, and using various light sources. I only do minimal post production on Adobe Photoshop when preparing my files for print.
I am most proud that during my career I have been able to tell stories. Those stories have been from, personal stories to the Australia National Photographic Portrait Exhibition, as a portrait photographer, and now, with my botanicals, to the Royal Botanical Gardens of Sydney.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Resilience, Persistence and Embracing Imperfection
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.francaturrin.com.au
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/franca_turrin
- Twitter: https://x.com/francaturrin_
