Open Theme nominee

My great-grandmother Maggie Victoria took her last breath aged only 56, in 1943. My great-grandfather Frank remarried just 10 months later. With grief suppressed in the midst of war, she was barely spoken of within the family after that – her life inadvertently erased.

I first came across Maggie Victoria in January 2022 as I dug through our family’s archives. Her somehow familiar face emerged from a cache of photos mostly captured by Frank – a colourful businessman and keen photographer in Lancashire, England.

I wanted to restore my great-grandmother's story and honour her role as a mother, a gardener, a woman. So I decided to create the series from which these images are drawn. “The Garden of Maggie Victoria” combines archive photos and letters with my own images made in Vancouver, thousands of miles away. The submitted images mark key points in her life, and sad decline.

Driven by a desire for connection with the past to understand my place in the world, the series explores the power of revived memory and grief for someone I never met.

Anchored in a personal meditation, it raises issues of family, heritage, place and the passing of time that affect us all.

Rachel Nixon is a British-Canadian fine art photographer – and former journalist – based in Vancouver.

Having lived and worked across continents and cultures, Rachel explores issues such as a desire for connection with one’s heritage, and the wider world. She also considers themes of secrecy, isolation and memory.

Inspired by the potential of natural forms to offer unexpected perspectives, Rachel uses strategies including abstraction and fragmentation to bring these to the viewer’s attention.

In 2019, Rachel graduated with honours from the VanArts professional photography program in Vancouver. Her work has been exhibited internationally and received accolades including two Julia Margaret Cameron Awards for abstract photography.

Before committing full-time to visual art, Rachel had a 20-year career as a journalist and executive in the UK, US and Canada for organizations including the BBC, CBC and Microsoft where she developed and ran digital news services. Her passion for storytelling and innovation now extend to her visual work.

Rachel holds a first-class degree from the University of Oxford in Modern Languages, and is fluent in French and German. Her international experience brings with it a unique perspective on questions of identity, place and belonging, and the connections we share despite polarized times.