On Monday, 2 March, photographic artist Jahkarli Romanis visited Sacred Heart to talk to VCE and Year 9 Studio Arts classes. A former student (Class of 2016), Jahkarli has since completed a Bachelor of Arts in Photography at RMIT, and has recently commenced its Photography Honours program.

Jahkarli studied photography in Middle School and Year 11. After graduation from SHC, Jahakarli had intentions of pursuing a writing course, but it was a visit on Open Day to RMIT’s Photography department that decided her future course of study.

The focus of Jahkarli’s work has moved from what she described as the ‘window’, looking at the world through the camera, to the ‘mirror’, turning the camera upon herself as a means of exploring her own identity, especially her indigenous heritage. For a recent exhibition at Boom Gallery in Newtown, Jahkarli wrote that her photography,

Explores my own identity as a Pitta Pitta women … a pursuit for control and agency … through self-portraiture, rendering myself visible within a medium that was historically used to misrepresent my people.

Using the Photoshop technique of layering, Jahkarli ‘submerses’ herself ‘back in to Country – the landscape that is the link between my culture, tribal grounds and where I exist now.’ (See images below for examples of Jahkarli’s work.)

Jahkarli engaged each class with her passion for photography, along with an electronic presentation that included her former school work as well as that from RMIT and exhibitions. She also had a folio of prints which demonstrated some of the processes she uses in her current work. It is evident from feedback from both students and staff that they very much appreciated Jahkarli’s visit, and are keen to have her return to guide students with their folio work.

John Watts, Arts Staff