SimonConnollyCM206

Born in Brighton in 1964 she originaly worked as a Psycho Therapist for 15 years before discovering her passion and talent in photography. Inspired by the loss of her Father , Mother and baby at this time she was faced with a completely new reality with some of the closest people in her life no longer being present. She moved to the west country, a rural part of Britain where she was out of her comfort zone. This relatability attracted me to her as I can see shades of my own mother in Sian Davey, as she too lost both her parents and moved down to Kilkenny a rural part of Ireland. The need for change in such a testing time of your life intrigued me, how the need for a passion to help distract yourself and give you a sense of purpose can act as a coping mechanism. For Sian Davey it was photography and for my mother it was panting.

However this is where the similarities between Davey and my mother end and where I begin to find her problematic for myself. For Sian Davey her new found success in photography helped her grow closer to her daughter Martha who first assisted her in her works and then later became the subject of her work along with her friends in their teenage life.

For my own Mother her new interest acted in the opposite way to Davey as she searched for tranquility and meaning she became as it felt to me increasingly isolated and hard to reach. A different coping mechanism, as Davey chose to focus on something new as her subject my mother found herself painting the canals of Dublin from where we had left in search of peace. Evidently she felt an attachment and longing for this area and eventually we moved back home to Dublin.

I found Sian Davey extremely intriguing and genuinely relatable. The feeling and realness in these images is wonderful, by taking all her photos during “Golden Hour” she creates a sense of warmth and comfort in her work this is what attracted me to her photography.