An Eye For Beauty
Your Home and Garden|June 2019

Christchurch creative Stacey Weaver never dreamed she’d make a living from photography, but her blossoming homeware business is proof that talent plus hard work can yield wonders

Sally Conor
An Eye For Beauty

How did you get interested in photography? What made you decide to pursue it for a living?

Stacey: I was about 14 when I first became interested in photography. I started using my parents’ point-and-shoot 35mm camera to photograph our pets and Mum’s impressive garden. I majored in photography during my fine arts degree at Canterbury University and later chased fashion photography jobs overseas, managing to land a couple of gigs shooting for Melbourne Spring Fashion week. But pursuing it full time seemed like an unattainable dream. Back home in Christchurch I freelanced while working in sales and marketing roles until Just South West was born as a “project” for a creative outlet four years ago. I started selling a few prints to my first stockist, A&C Homestore, in 2016. The “project” continued to blossom and is now my full-time focus.

What drew you to photographing flowers?

I have always been drawn to still life but not to flowers specifically until the start of 2015 when I photographed a peony stem which seemed to have dried into a perfect petal sculpture. I wanted to shoot it and enlarge as big as I could to focus on all the intricate areas of natural deterioration. Luckily a friend of mine worked at a local printer and allowed me to experiment! My love affair with decaying blooms began that day and I think my mother’s passion for flowers has subconsciously seeped its way into my lifestyle and interests today.

How did you develop your style?

This story is from the June 2019 edition of Your Home and Garden.

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This story is from the June 2019 edition of Your Home and Garden.

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