ashlen faith

After restlessly scraping my way through my final years of high school, I saved up a little money and booked a one way ticket to Scotland. It was during this time, travelling around in a tiny van, living off porridge and peanut butter, that I picked up my first film camera and fell instantly in love. Sadly that camera was stolen in the early hours of the morning at a bus station in Spain, along with six rolls of film. But we don’t speak about that.. Safe to say, since returning home I quickly made up for my loss. I picked up another camera, and another and another. It’s best not to count them all, or to add up exactly how much money I’ve spent on film in the last four or so years. But truly, it’s been worth every cent. Worth it for the pure unadulterated joy of the process. The slowness. Every image is thought out. Every click of the shutter is precious. It’s not just light being captured, but time, a memory, a little slice of the past being carried on into the future. It’s magic really. And a privilege. To capture moments of beauty. Moments that have made me stop in awe. At the wonder of creation and of the One who created it. This is why I do what I do. In the hope that I can share this beauty with someone else. I am only a young lady with a camera, after all. The real Artist is within and all around us.

‘But ask the beasts and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.’ Job 12:7-10