Nadine Shaw initially studied as a multimedia visual artist, but whilst working in a photography lab in London she met photographer David Bailey—a force of nature, who inspired her career in professional photography.
With her first SLR—a Pentax ME Super—she spent countless hours photographing the streets, scenes, and people of London and learning her craft from the rockstar photographers of that time.
After several years in England and Europe, she returned to her native South Africa, and studied commercial and advertising photography at Technicon Natal.
She immigrated to Australia in 1994 settling in Brisbane where she got straight to work assisting the top advertising and commercial photographers.
In early 1997 she stepped out to brave the industry on her own, being sought after by advertising agencies and shooting a wide gamut of subjects from cars to open-heart surgery.
As digital photography took hold in the early 2000s, Nadine broadened her work and gained mastery over corporate and industrial photography. This saw her being commissioned to shoot high-end projects such as Prime Ministers, Officials, and top-secret military aircraft.
Many years of advertising and corporate work have given her the experience, ability, and language to know which questions to ask to make sure the job gets done right, the first time, and with a vision and style that’s uniquely hers.
Nadine has put her 10,000 hours into a broad photography scope, but 10 years ago her absolute joy of shooting gastronomical delights drove her to create Feast Photography—a glorious synergy of her love of the natural world, permaculture, food, and photography. She considers the final image the result of a journey from pollen, to plate, to all their glorious pixels.
As one of the industry’s most consistent, leading photographers Nadine believes that “if you do something long enough you invariably get good at it. If you enjoy what you are doing you generally focus on it, but if you obsess over what you do, then you can’t help but master it.”