Visual Essay 11 by Claudia Smith

We’ve invited Claudia Smith for the 11th iteration of our Visual Essay Series. Our Visual Essay series is designed to engage and connect with creatives globally – giving them free reign to interpret Mud Australia’s designs through their unique creative lens.

Claudia Smith is a Byron Bay based fashion and still life photographer, see more of Claudia's work here.

This essay was photographed on Bundjalung Country, focused on colour and form. Inspired by the land and the beautiful clean lines of Mud Australia pieces, I wanted to capture this in the natural environment. With colour as a focus, a palette of warm tones and deep blues emerge as a representation of our skies and water bodies — lakes, oceans, and rivers of our beautiful country.

In art and life – what inspires and drives you?

The ocean, the colour blue, architecture, and how light falls across objects.

I was born and raised in Byron Bay, I moved back over a year ago to call this place home again. It’s a place that draws you in, the community feels familiar and comforting.

I have been drawn to creative disciplines and taking images from a young age, documenting faces, bodies, and landscapes. I feel privileged and driven to continue making something I love as part of my every day.

For someone who photographs people and fashion primarily, you seem to have moved into more landscape and still life work recently – what has driven this direction?

I’m always thinking of other ways I could evolve my work, including a sculptural or more experimental practice through imagery and creating outside the fashion space. Covid-19 and the last two years has allowed me the time and space to work further on this, we are always growing as people and creatives, and I love to follow this intuitive process.