Izzy Mai is a Uk photographer based in Bristol. Her practise is analogue based, using the Mamiya RZ67 as a staple within her image making, enjoying the process of developing and printing analogue. As an artist, she currently explores how photography can be used cathartically through personal exploration of trauma. Collaboration and storytelling are key aspects within her process, using photography's platform to raise awareness for mental health and lived experience. Crucially, the work provides her and her subjects an opportunity to speak up, to advocate for oneself. Outside of photography, she is dedicated to helping others and charity-based work, working in the states for a camp for homeless children. 

These images belong to a current project, Little, a personal reflection on my childhood experiences as a means of both healing and starting conversations. The work explores challenging experiences through metaphor, as a means to share what words can sometimes not translate. It also offers a re-establishment of the relationship between my mother, sister and myself and our shared history. This work has been made as a way to process my trauma, to find my voice again and importantly, provide a platform for my mother and sister to do the same. The process of making this body of work has been undeniably important, finding such catharsis through photography and image making, slowing down time and making the past more digestible. Little does not dwell on the negative; but celebrates the present and our courage as strong, brave, intellectual women. Together, this is the collaboration of love and hardship, family and blood, a chance to reclaim the past, to process freely and raise awareness.