Tess Saunders is a Melbourne-based photographer drawn to the quiet narratives hidden within everyday life. While her early work centred around portraiture—capturing the subtle complexities of human faces—her practice is evolving toward visual storytelling that blurs the line between truth and fiction.

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Inspired by the cinematic worlds of Gregory Crewdson, the intimacy of Sally Mann, and the self-reflective performance of early Cindy Sherman, Tess creates images that feel like stills from a motionless film. Her photographs linger in the in-between moments—spaces where time feels suspended and emotion quietly pulses beneath the surface.

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Recurring themes in her work include the female perspective, transitional periods across age, and the layered dynamics of relationships, particularly between mother and child. Through these subjects, she explores how identity, memory, and emotion shape our sense of self and place.

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Though analog photography remains her medium of choice—for its pace, texture, and intentionality—her current focus is less about process and more about presence. Each frame is a fragment of a larger, unfolding narrative: not a documentation, but an invitation to feel.