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Hannah James

@hannahjameswords

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Managing editor @countrystylemag & @bellemagazineau | Sydney | Subscribe to The Wild Library newsletter ⬇️

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Beautiful day. Our hibiscus in bloom. Reading Meg’s new one. Dream Saturday. by @hannahjameswords

Good MORNING! Remembered the nature at the end of the road; had a walk in it before work; recommend. by @hannahjameswords

Great Dixter on a scorching day. Grade 1-listed gardens; 15th-century manor house with Lutyens additions; beauty everywhere. by @hannahjameswords

Talking to @sidpattni for the current issue of @countrystylemag was such a delight. He’s so thoughtful, intelligent and engaging, just like you hope every interviewee will be. He even recommended me one of his favourite books on art-making (George Saunders’s A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, if you’re interested!). I loved our chat, and you can read it in the current issue of Country Style, on sale for a few more days. Our art exhibition at Michael Reid @murraart is also on for a few more days, so pop along if you’re in the area or browse online - the artworks are for sale so you might find something lovely. by @hannahjameswords

Always heart-burstingly proud of Country Style’s annual art issue, which is out now. Was fortunate enough to interview Karen Rogers and Jill Daniels for this issue.

They work from Ngukurr Arts Centre in the Northern Territory, and getting these gorgeous photos of them was no easy feat.

A week before the shoot, the arts centre coordinator told us the only road to town was flooded. Plan B was chartering a plane to get the photographer there and back. Plan C was prayer. Given the cost of a plane, prayer was actually the more realistic option, but the road thankfully reopened before I had to request a miracle. Phew, problem solved.

HOWEVER. My application to the Northern Land Council for the photographer’s access permit wasn’t approved until TWO DAYS BEFORE the shoot - I’d applied before Christmas, and checked its status every day over the holidays. Every day it was still marked as Pending. And I did not have a Plan B for this one. But finally Pending became Approved, just as the photographer was about to set off on his nine-hour drive from Darwin. Another problem resolved!

AND THEN! The coordinator called me the day before the shoot saying the air conditioning in the donga where the photographer was staying overnight had broken. Oh well, I said, how hot can it be? About 50 degrees, it transpired, which would probably have broken all kinds of health and safety rules. BUT! Despite being tiny, Ngukurr has a motel. AND! It had a vacancy, which I snapped up.

And a few days later, when we got these shots, it was clear the weeks of nail-biting had been worthwhile. This is why I do this: to tell the stories of fascinating people doing incredible things. And – when it all goes right – this is what we do best in the media: we put money, and creativity, and time (so much time!), and love, and stress, and sometimes even prayer into getting the story and telling it right. by @hannahjameswords

When the ice cream boat calls… summer’s turning to autumn and now every sunny clear day feels like a gift. by @hannahjameswords

The @artgalleryofnsw keeps telling me it’s the last few weeks of the Dangerously Modern exhibition and I might actually go again, it was so good. I recommend following up by listening to the podcast about it from the Art Gallery of SA, then reading Drusilla Modjeska’s Stravinsky’s Lunch, then tracking down a copy of Stella Bowen’s memoir Drawn From Life. (Scandalously not in print; I got mine secondhand.) Feel like I’ve had a lovely enriching deep dive into the lives and work of all these incredible, groundbreaking, brave, talented women about whom I previously knew practically nothing. Some may call it hyperfixation; I call it learning. (Also, yes, ok, hyperfixation.) by @hannahjameswords

When work is fun… My first @bellemagazineau @fanulifurniture Interior Design Awards and what a brilliant night it was. by @hannahjameswords

When journalism goes right… I had such a fabulous conversation with Nipa Doshi @doshilevien about her new exhibition @ngvmelbourne. Even in the course of a half-hour chat, she made me think differently about art and design and how they fit together and their place in our lives. And then I got to write about it for @bellemagazineau - a really proud moment. The November issue, with this story inside, is out now! by @hannahjameswords

An eventful day for spotting wildlife in Manly - a water dragon, and echidna and finally, some whales! Plus, what even is a Sunday without some quality reading time? This one is Natasha Brown’s Universality - a really engaging look at who says what in public and why. Most traumatic line describes a failing, flailing freelance journalist who is (to me) unfortunately named: “He looked into Hannah’s dull, unthinking face; the inadvertent herald of western society’s decline, stupidly chewing an olive.” Wow, ok, who invited you into my dining room?? Such an interesting read. by @hannahjameswords

One of those glorious bookshops that seem to be getting rarer and rarer. Piles and piles of treasures stacked haphazardly (check out those magazines!) covering every genre and topic you could dream of. And when you walk in, you’re greeted by a hoarse but perky voice saying Hello. You say hello back, peering between the stacks of books to see who’s speaking. You can’t. Until you finally figure it out… (last pic). His name is Archie and yes, in this pic, he’s a slightly soggy parrot (he just took a bath in his water bowl, according to his amused owner, the eponymous Camilla). What a place! by @hannahjameswords