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Owner @caretakers.cottage 🏡 @threehorsesbar 🎠
@boothbydrinks Bartender of the Year 2023
Poppa to Sandy 🏝 & Wren 🦜
Lives in Melbourne 🇦🇺

$MILAN, 2026 | WHAT I DIDN’T KNOW I WAS LOOKING FOR What did hospitality give me that I didn’t know I was looking for? A few days ago, I asked this question to the people I’ve met along the way. Now it’s my turn to answer. When I entered this industry, I wasn’t searching for a community, belonging or a greater purpose. I simply wanted to make a living doing what I loved, photography. Instead, I found people who saw something in me I wasn’t sure existed, but wanted to believe was there. People who opened doors, trusted my vision and made me feel part of something bigger than myself. Over time, that trust became a responsibility, to document not only what this industry achieves, but who we are. To me, photography has never been just about freezing a moment. It’s about everything that leads us to it, the people we choose to photograph, the stories we tell, what we include in the frame and what we leave outside it. A moment lasts a fraction of a second. But how we portray it can shape the way it’s understood decades, perhaps a hundred years, from now. That’s the beauty and responsibility of telling stories through images. Looking back at Milan, I see far more than an awards ceremony. I see people. Friendships built over years. Lives crossing paths. Dreams realised. Embraces and fleeting moments that may never happen quite the same way again. Some will be remembered by thousands. Others may matter only to those who were there. To me, they are equally worth remembering. I don’t pretend to tell the whole story. I’m simply grateful to be trusted with a small part of it. And perhaps that’s what hospitality gave me without my knowing I was looking for it: a sense of purpose. The chance to preserve the human stories behind this community, and the hope that my photographs will mean something beyond the moments they captured. Legacy is not just what we leave behind. It’s what we make possible for others. Thank you for letting me be part of your stories. MAYUKA®$

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