BIOGRAPHY

Giselle Macfarlane’s passion for photography has taken her to the far reaches of the globe. Since leaving England and her life as a ballerina she has focused her energy on exploring humanity. Her studies of ‘Street Life in India’, ‘Life on the Streets’ in Los Angeles, ‘Life in the Shacks’ in Capetown, South Africa and documenting the U.N. Conference Against Racism in Africa underscore this.

Her recent work in South Africa with the Mothers 2 Mothers Programme (women living with HIV) project started a decade ago when she began working with thrice nominated Pulitzer prize photographer Jim Hubbard of Shooting Back on a project called ‘The Very Special Arts’ where they taught photography to extremely physically challenged children, giving them a tool to express themselves and to document their lives and their environment. These images were used to celebrate ‘The Year of the Handicapped’.

Giselle was then invited to be a volunteer photography teacher with Jim Hubbard and Lynn Warshafsky, co-founder of Venice Arts. Venice Arts is an innovative arts center that brings talented artists together with low-income young people to nurture their creativity, imagination, and talent. Giselle felt bringing photography to at-risk kids in the inner city gave them “a choice of weapons” to use the words of Gordon Parks, gave them a voice and perhaps gave them a future. Together they saw to fruition ‘The House is Small, But the Welcome is Big’, 'Picturing Race', ‘Girls’ Lives Through Girls’ Eyes to name a few.

Giselle has also worked with the California Community Foundation on a book project ‘As They See It’. The project was a vehicle to show how Los Angeles County teens perceive their surroundings and their sense of community.

Find out more about:
Venice Arts
www.venice-arts.org

See a short film about ‘The House is Small, But the Welcome is Big’
http://www.venice-arts.org/studentWork/socialart/ilivehere/ilivehere.html

Mothers 2 Mothers Programme
http://www.m2mafrica.org/

Shooting Back
http://www.shootingback.org/

The California Community Foundation
http://www.calfund.org/

The Samburu Project
www.thesamburuproject.org/

Giselle Macfarlane’s clients include

The Los Angeles Times
The Big Issue
The Getty Museum
Radioshack
U Know Magazine
City of Los Angeles
Univercity of Los Angeles
California State of Los Angeles
Goldfinger
Sarah Dashew
Race Horse Studios
St Josephs Center
A&R Registry
Kabong
The Samburu Project
Wedding Bells Magazine
Wedding Channel Magazine
Spectrum Broadcasting
Centaur North
Metaforce
Iris Stewart www.irisimportsinternational.com