EdithMay Gowing

Regular Orange City life readers will be familiar with the work of our on-call photographer, EdithMay Gowing, from our social pages, but you may not know that landscape photography is where her real passion lies.

Growing up on a farm near Trundle, photography, art and nature were a big part of Edith’s childhood. Her early memories are filled with excursions to national parks, where her dad would wander off with his camera while her mother would find a quite spot to sit and sketch.

Edith bought her first camera when she was just ten years old and she hasn’t been without one since.

“It was just a toy. It was a plastic toy camera that used real film, took black and white photos but for a toy it took really good photos,” said Edith, who believe it or not, still has prints of those very first photos.

“That’s probably where it really started,” said Edith. “My Dad is still a keen photographer.”

It was also her father who gave Edith her first SLR, just prior to a school trip to New Zealand.

“That was a big, big thing for me. I remember pulling it out on the flight over to find out how it worked.”

For many years, photography remained just a hobby for Edith, who trained as a teacher, but as work took her from NSW to South Australia to Papua New Guinea, the camera was always on hand.

About nine years ago, Edith found herself looking for new opportunities and so it was then she decided to follow her true passion.

“I thought, I’ve always wanted to do photography, I've always wanted to do landscapes; let's see what we can do,” said Edith, whose work is now a regular sight at markets in and around Orange.

“Primarily, I do landscapes and I sell them at markets as prints, keyrings, magnets, coasters… that’s the sort of stuff I'm selling around. And of course, I do a calendar every year.”

Edith’s work almost exclusively features her much-loved Central Western landscapes.

“For me, my love of photography is teamed with my love of bush walking, nature and travel,” said Edith, who believes that camera can help you connect to the land around you.

“It slows you down,” she said. “because it makes you stop and makes you look.”

Edith is just about to release her 2020 Calendar of local landscapes and even has a book in the works.

“A book is something I've wanted to do for a while. A book of local landscapes, particularly the hidden gems around the back roads and stuff like that,” said Edith.

You’ll find Edith set up at market days across the region and you can also purchase her work at the Orange Visitor Information Centre.

If you’d like to see more of Edith’s work or get in touch, you can find her at Emay Images on Facebook or emayimages.com.au