Agata Mayes remembers being mesmerised by the darkroom her father built in the bathroom of their family home when she was a child. For Polish-born Mayes, it sparked an early photographic fascination. But only after graduating in informatics and several years in the aviation industry did the fine art photographer finally decide, in 2011, to seriously focus on the medium. This budding career has already led her to win the “Kayell Best Commercial Work” at the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne, in 2015.
Continuing to self-educate and seeking courses to refine her technical skills, Mayes hopes to use photography to explore the cavernous depths of the human experience and as a conduit for her viewers to reflect on their own experiences. Mayes is also currently studying at Photography Studies College in Melbourne.
Getting to the root of a deeper emotional awareness, Mayes’ work allows her audience to revisit their own repressed emotions which allows them to penetrate far beyond the surface of the subconscious. In a series of bare-all self-portraits, Mayes focuses on self-reflection moving her psychological and philosophical exploration into the experience of unexplained, severe fear. This recent body of work provides an opportunity for the viewer to revisit “the inside”, reconnect with what is “real” and abandon the idea of “wrong” to further personal interpretation.
Mayes has long term plans to continue her psychological photographic journey and her contributions to the art and photographic communities. Currently, she is working on a new series, Sleeping Humanity, which will be released later this year.
www.agatamayes.com
