V i k k i - k a t e
In the interest of getting to know each other better, here are some things about me...
- Yes, all my clothes are black. What can I say it makes me happy. I put the 'fun' in funeral attire!
- Giving people surprises might be my most favourite thing ever.
- I currently live in the Rose of the Shires! In a slightly strange town full of irn bru with my dreamy husband and our two little dogs.
- I was born and brought up in Middlesbrough and I'm proud to be a Yorkshire lass. (So shh but weddings up north often are my favourites!)
- Sushi is my favourite food to eat on date night, Italian to cook at home.
- I'm a big film lover, especially indie comedies and anything spooky. Right now I'm re-watching Game of Thrones and binging on Parks + Rec.
- My most played music is Fleetwood Mac, always. However after a few drinks... Mostly just Spice Girls and varying musical soundtracks, loudly.
- I truly love shooting my destination weddings, the countries I would most like to visit next are Norway, Italy and Japan.
- My most treasured book is an extremely weird old children's novel called Nicobobinus, but my current favourite writers are Jon Ronson, Lindy West and Aaron Mahnke.
- I'm currently learning to be a Tarot reader and loving practicing on my (most patient) friends.
- Podcasts keep me alive whilst editing and motorway driving, my favourites right now are My Favourite Murder and Lore.
- I plan my calendar year by the cycles of the Moon.
- I currently shoot with two Canon 5D mark III's, various prime lenses, an instax Mini90, instax wide, a Diana F and a Fuji X100T that I love for personal adventures.
- My greatest passion in life may be photography, but my biggest joys are animals who have their own instagram accounts, halloween and drag queens.
- For whom it may concern... I am a Mudblood in Gryffindor and my Patronus is a Rottweiler.
- I'm not really a big drinker, but- ooh has it got rum in it? Yes please.
- Growing up, my Dad took the most beautiful photos on his Pentax analogue camera and is definitely my biggest inspiration (along with me Mam, the hardest worker I know!). He taught me to always find the natural light and above all else, shoot what you love.
- The family we're born into and the families we choose are both equally important. Ghost Photo at it's core is the concept that the loving vibes, supportive actions and treasured memories of the people we love and have loved us follow us wherever we go, whether they're there by our side or not. Take time in life to reflect on them, pay attention to how they make you feel, hold more photographs in your hands... embrace the haunting.
my approach
I few years ago I attended a photography workshop that changed the way I was working almost entirely.
I've always loved photographing people, the ability to capture the depth of a human emotion in a still image is an incredible gift and if you have even a shred of it, it's something to be nurtured constantly. A couple of years after deciding I knew this is what I was meant to do with my life, I hit a creative plateau, I felt a bit lost within my work, my images weren't progressing the way I wanted them to and the way I knew in my heart I was capable of. I decided to invest in myself and booked onto an advanced photography workshop that focused on our work as artists, not what equipment we used. Part of the workshop homework was to put together a slideshow to show the group. It was my turn and as I was sitting watching all these other talented artists view my work, I was noticing that every time images from a particular shoot came up the photos got the same emotional reaction. At the end of the presentation the leader of the workshop turned to face me with tears in her eyes and said "Who are that couple on the moors?" Slightly perplexed but intrigued I answered her, "That's my parents." A resounding mumble of realisation and understanding went round the room, what she said next was something that has been burned into my heart ever since.
"The way you photograph your parents, it's like you can literally feel your love for them radiating out of you and down through your lens into these images."
Everyone emphatically agreed and much weeping commenced (I won't lie, mostly from me) not just because what a beautiful thing to hear from a room full of people who have no idea who I am or who my parents are, but because I knew right there everything I had been doing wrong, and exactly what I needed to do to become the artist and photographer I always wanted to be, always felt like maybe I could be. The photos I took of my Mum and Dad that day were completely spontaneous and actually in the middle of a really difficult time for our family, but I adore them as people and apparently it showed, that's literally all it took. I wasn't thinking technically, caught up in my head, I didn't have to try and dig out emotions using my brain, they were just there.
In the plight of being seen as a "proper" business woman (hmm) I had always kept my clients at a friendly arms length. I loved chatting to them of course, hearing about their family, cuddling their babies, and still do! But emotionally I didn't take all of it in, I wasn't connecting with them on that level and for such a ridiculous reason, to be "professional"? What does that really even mean? I left the workshop with my guard immediately down, from the first shoot I did after that till every shoot I do now, I take my time, I sit and chat but really listen, notice little details, take in the energy of your home, how you hold your children, how you look at each other. It slowly puts me into a place of seeing you not as a client but as one of your loved ones looking on. I feel that connection and that love they have for you and that you have for each other, and I shoot from a place of depth and emotional investment in your life. I don't just want the pretty pictures any more, I want the real ones, the ones you'll look back on when you're older and remember how you felt when you said 'I do', when you brought home your child for the first time, when you were surrounded by the faces you love most.
I now have a lot of thoughts and feelings about everyone I photograph, and I'm super into it.