CHANEL IRVINE

Cluster Photography & Print Exhibitor | 2025

Chanel Irvine (b. 1995) is a documentary and portrait photographer based in Kent. Her practice aims to document the tension between preservation and change, and the role that human initiative, connection and contribution can play in this relationship. Inspired by the growth of solution-based journalism, Chanel embraces visual communication that empowers. Her stories often focus on livelihoods, environments and communities that are susceptible to change from emerging trends, development demands and environmental pressures. Aware of the multitude of sustainability issues they face, Chanel is particularly interested in the people and organisations who are working to make a positive environmental and social impact in their communities.

“Record-breaking temperatures and months of severe drought fuelled the bushfires, though uncertainty of their exact cause and the climate change debate still persists. I read somewhere that ‘this would be the summer that changes everything’ and sadly I’m not sure it was the case. Regardless of the different arguments and their proponents, one thing remains clear: this is a climate crisis.

Over my five weeks in three different states of Australia, I witnessed first-hand the severity of the drought and the aftermath of some of the bushfires. I also spent time in places where the land had not been affected by the fires, though the morale of the people there certainly had. With this series of images, I hoped to contrast the visible devastation of the bushfires and the drought with scenes of a seemingly unaffected seaside summer, to offer a picture of the state of the world today – where many people are living in some form of environmental, social or health disaster, and others remain safe and sheltered – for now.”

— Chanel Irvine

Using a retrospective lens, Chanel’s more personal work similarly reflects this tension between preservation and change. With an eye for moments she deems timeless, her observations consistently focus on scenes that are reminiscent of older, simpler times, which persist seemingly unaffected by the advancements that otherwise transform the world we live in. As a result, her photographs accentuate the “ordinary” - reasserting its importance as a photographic subject and highlighting the beauty that can constantly be rediscovered in the everyday.

‘Time and tide keep on pushing and pulling

Pushing and pulling on you and me

Sometimes our flood runs high,

Sometimes we’re both left bone dry

Dreaming of the big blue sea!

Time and tide wait for no one

Time and tide keep on pushing and pulling.’

These are lyrics from beloved Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly’s song ‘Time and Tide’. I listened to his Greatest Hits CD on-repeat in January 2020, as I drove around his beautiful country that was being devastated by the relentless wildfires that had been burning since September 2019. 33 people were killed (including four firefighters), more than 11 million hectares of bush, forest and parks burned down and 1 billion animals were estimated to have died from the fires. On the 1st of January, the air quality index in Canberra – at 4.091 – ranked the worst in the world, 20 times higher than the hazardous level, with smoke later reaching as far as New Zealand and South America.

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