Front Door Project – Cohuna Captures and Beyond!

Due to COVID-19 ‘The Art Of Zowie Photography’ – (Mathoura Wedding Photographer) Zowie Crump was soon out of work. But as the pandemic unravelled, Zowie has since put a ‘creative spin’ on her photography journey in now leaving the gate open to capture a bigger picture through photographing families throughout local regional communities at their front door or farm gate.

From growing up on a farm, the mother of two young boys Billy aged three years and nine-month-old Wally, and with Todd, a supporting partner of 17 years, Zowie’s developing career as a professional photographer has taken regional towns by storm recently. 

From the schoolyard, as primary school teacher come ‘arty crafty’ person, capturing these moments in time through COVID will be one to remember.

“I’m a wedding photography normally, but all my weddings from March/April, which is usually the busiest time of the year, were obviously postponed.  I was thinking of what I was going to do as I’m not the sort of person that does nothing.”

Zowie was inspired by a photographer friend in Gippsland who was taking photos of families at their front door (stemming from an original ideas from America). From there, Zowie advertised within the local area with social media posts on Facebook in late March to engage interest from the Mathoura Echuca and Deniliquin areas. Since then she hasn’t looked back.

“I had so many enquiries that I had to section it into areas of towns.

 “At the start, everybody was excited about somebody coming to their house especially with people in lockdown. 

“One lady said that she had washed her hair for the first time in a week. Another said ‘I’ve actually put lippy on!’”

Zowie created a booking time schedule once a week, and this worked really well to organise the photoshoots.

“I’ve been to Hay, Finley, Kyabram, Cohuna and Wakool and everywhere in between dating back to March 29, the first of the ‘Front Door’ projects.

 “It was quick and easy. I was at each place for no longer than five minutes and there was no location scouting,” Zowie said.

Photos of families were taken at front gates, front door steps or gardens, from farmlets to townships in northern regional Victoria and southern New South Wales.

“I advertised the photoshoot as free with options of purchasing a digital file and a print.

Some families have requested Zowie to return at a later date to take more family photos once the pandemic is over.

“I’m thinking of doing something in summer as it’s tricky at the moment when it gets dark so early. 

“For some people I spoke to, this is the first family photo they’ve had!”

Zowie captured 33 families across the Letichville, Gunbower and Cohuna area and all were taken last Saturday, in one day and with extraordinary interest with more than 675 families covered across the two states.

“It was something I could never have imagined. It was just something that I  thought would keep me occupied during this downtime.

“There were families all together, as kids were home from school and uni and it was a perfect time with the beautiful Autumn light.

“It was good fun and I loved getting around, meeting lots of people, hearing their different stories and even seeing the different architecture of houses and farms.

“They were all looking forward to seeing my photos instead of all the other doom and gloom.”

Zowie will now be advertising to do similar projects for families living in the same streets, community groups to farming areas that are within close proximity.

 “I will be still doing weddings now too but this is with limited numbers as defined by restrictions. I have some booked in September but it’s all a bit unknown if these will change too.”