I ALMOST DIED by KIMBRA AUDREY
Kimbra Audrey is an American artist living and working in Paris. After working as a model for nearly a decade, Kimbra was frustrated with the superficial images constantly created of her and working in an industry that was not at all in alignment with her values. She has struggled with depression her entire life and began taking self-portraits as a cathartic way to create images of how she actually sees herself. Kimbra shoots exclusively on film, which she develops and prints herself at home. She does not retouch her images and finds beauty in the natural imperfections that occur from shooting film.
“In March this year I went to Melbourne, Australia for the first time. I knew that Australia was known for its famous beaches and I wanted to find the best ones to shoot at. I had read about a place called Bushrangers Bay, and when I first researched it I learned someone had recently died there. There are steep cliffs, unpredictable currents and jagged rocks. The beach is very isolated and it takes a full hour hike to reach it. At the bay there are rock pools you can swim in but they are only accessible during low tide. The first time I went there, the tide was already starting to come in, so I wasn’t able to shoot much. I also slipped and fell into a rock pool with my cameras, tripod and all my film. They all worked still, it’s not their first time in the ocean.
So I went back a second time with my close friend Lucy, we went first thing in the morning, before the sun was even up. For almost half the day we had the entire beach to ourselves. Shooting tons of film, sunbathing and swimming. As the tide started to come in, the waves suddenly got out of control. I was taking self-portraits and standing near the edge of a 30ft cliff that massive waves were overtaking and one got me and knocked me down. Luckily, Lucy was by my camera so that was safe, but I almost died. We were screaming, hysterical and then eventually started laughing. And we still thought it would be a good idea to finish shooting another roll, while waves twice the size of us were crashing down. We started walking towards a rock pool while a huge swell came and Lucy and I stood holding each other and my camera yelling <<BRACE>>!”
