Katey Middle - photographer
Professional portrait photographer since 2010
Currently based on unceded Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/Melbourne
Getting ready to launch new things, so this is a very random selection of some of my favourite images over the years (pro-cameras and iPhone)
New documentary film and portrait hybrid venture due date: June 2025
Always dabbling in photography portraiture for projects that excite me, so shoot me an email if you’d like to work together
About me
Hey there, my name is Katey (she/her).
I was born on unceded Noogar Boodjar in Boorloo/Perth in the 1980’s to English parents, and as a youngster I cut my creative and intellectual teeth on a weird smorgasbord of things including English Literature, musical theatre, grunge, sad or niche films, science fiction, politics, classical music, Irish folk music, and poetry.
I am currently living in the Dandenongs on unceded Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/Melbourne. My car is guaranteed to be covered in dust, and possibly a few spiderwebs, from adventures around the mountains.
I started an arts degree after high school, then dropped out to go solo travelling around Canada working on organic farms. I then returned home to start a film degree, before chickening out after semester one and getting an economics degree instead. After graduating, I lasted 18 months at a very fancy international accounting firm (“it wasn’t a great fit for me ideologically” is the diplomatic way I choose to describe that experience), but luckily one of my managers dabbled in photography on the side like me, and in 2010 we started our own wedding photography business as a side hustle. By 2013 I was full-time as a professional photographer, eventually specialising in portraiture.
My creative philosophy is:
1) Art should be about connection. And should come from the heart, and hit the heart where it needs to be hit, in comfort and/or as a wake up call, sometimes whether the viewer wants to be woken up or not.
2) Reverence and irreverence are two sides of the same coin, and balance requires equal parts of both. I have both a carefully deployed dark and dry sense of humour and keen eye for the absurdity of life, as well as a deep spirituality. By 'spirituality' I mean that I believe every life form here is part of a collective bound together by love*. But not “love* and *light” love. Love* can be *beautiful, *soft, and *full of *light, but it can also be a thing of *rage, *anger, *grief, *hope, *fear, *pain, *wild-and-wilderness, *irreverance, *truth, and *fire. So, you might have noticed some photos of *social *justice events in my gallery. That’s because I *believe in *loving each *other so much we *fight for each *other, and sometimes have to *challenge a few of *us for the *rights and *safety of the rest of *us. But *always *fighting from *hope for *healing *and *creation, not for *destruction.
I am currently Frankensteining a few of my key interests together into a completely new business where I interview people in romantic relationship on camera, then do a creative and emotionally intimate portrait session. And give them a series of videos and photos that will help them, their loved ones, and maybe even strangers on the internet, honour, treasure and understand their particular shade and expression of a love story. And in doing so, hopefully also give insights into the universality of how we all love.
I also write experimental long-form poetry and fiction, and I won’t put you through reading any of my pieces because I want to keep you on my website, not scare you off.
I still do portraiture on the side for projects or people I am inspired by, so please feel free to message me to see if we are a good fit to work together.
