being an opal: a conversation with sara blicavs

I remember one of my brothers ripped a barbie doll from my hand one day, put her hair in water, rubbed her in the dirt and said, ‘Come on, let’s go kick the footy.’ That probably sums it up.

A photograph of Sara Blicavs and Saraid Taylor, taken by Alexia Brehas.

i was nineteen when i first started an interview series. i knew i wanted a written and visual component, but with no access to the resources needed for a podcast i organised to work with other emerging artists for free. i recorded the audio of the interview on my phone, typed out each sentence into a transcript, and accompanied the text with the work of a photographer. i was part of the shoot. i wanted every project to be a unique collaboration: between interviewer and interviewee, layered with both of us as subjects of the photographer.

the plan was to approach any famous person, starting with the ones i knew, and ask them the same set of questions. the entire set, around thirty, was an excuse to ask one:

what do you do every single day to make the world better?

it was the only answer i was interested in. i cared generally about stories, about how someone is shaped into who they are, but they were the questions celebrities were always asked. i was drawn to dissecting harder. i wanted to know about accountability, vulnerability and empathy.

i conducted only three interviews. i released two. this was the debut, with sara blicavs, one of my first friends in the wnbl.