Nestled in a small town that has been culturally shaped throughout history by timber getters, banana farmers and Sannyasins, is a disused Catholic convent that has been home to Melbourne-based photographer Jesse Boyd-Reid’s family for the last twenty years. “A Small Pool of White Light”, ongoing since 2017, documents his daily life in the cloistered community.

By photographing those closest to him, Boyd-Reid examines the cyclical nature of life. “I follow the ebb and flow of my family’s passage through life by photographing scenes of intimacy, belief, ceremony and stillness that I have been permitted to document (and at times restage) in an effort to understand the range of experiences that make up a human life,” he explains. “In this process I am both participant and observer, experiencing and reflecting.

Documenting the near and familiar relies on the idea of life as art, and through this line of enquiry my work raises questions about queerness, connection and family. My work seeks to create a space, through the mechanics of the camera, where embodied experience and its outward expression can reclaim a poetic center and honour the dignity of lived experience.”

See more from “A Small Pool of White Light” below!