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 HANNAH MORRISON catches Brisbane-based photographer RACHEL AUST, one who’s on the up and up.
I think I might be psychic. I don’t want to be dramatic – my breasts can’t tell when it’s about to rain or anything – but I have this knack for picking out people like Rachel Aust, who will go on to make it big. Also, I can usually tell who’s calling me, when my cat is hungry and whether I’m going to have a good hair day. My best friend says this could be a combination of caller ID, psychotic meowing and never really having had a good hair day, but I don’t know, I can’t be sure. Then there’s the fact that every time I shake one of those magic eight balls it says ‘you know the answer’. Coincidence? I choose to think not.
Rachel Aust is a Brisbane based fashion, beauty and editorial photographer who believes that “in life the only things stopping you is yourself.” She’s intensely hard-working with punchy pink-haired charm. She is all personality and presence and big-picture thinking. She takes the kind of photos that inspire creative people to do even better and has been described by others in the industry as ‘clear and concise with the ability to bring out the best in people.’ If you don’t already live and breathe fashion or photography, then welcome friend, because it could start here.
 Rachel began taking pictures in 2009 and after dipping her toes in at University, opted for the school of life. “I stopped study and within five months of really hard work I was getting paid and published,” she recounts. Rachel has shot for local designers such as Bette Fox and tilldeathdouspart. Her work has been seen in cool-ass online zines like Ninety-Two Magazine, and with an upcoming spread in Italian magazine NASTY, it is clear we will be seeing a lot more of her (so-to-speak). At 19, and with a plethora of commercial work already under her belt, Rachel jokes, “I’m not sure how old I feel, my sense of time is lacking, and I never know what day it is”. She assures me that the crisp nature of her photography is more to do with her aesthetic and well removed from her own personality.
It’s not always easy getting work though, even when you work hard. Commenting on the competitive nature of the Brisbane Creative Industry, Rachel notes: “There are a lot of amateur photographers and unsigned models in Brisbane ready to undercut the prices of others or even work for free.”
I have been ‘keeping sufficiently updated’ (read: obsessively stalking) Rachel Aust’s photography since a friend put me onto her website last year. She uses beautiful clean lines in her work and her editorial shoots tell stories too beautiful to be real. Aust is a self-proclaimed fan of minimalism and her porcelain-skinned models often have an alien-like quality about them. Despite their physical perfection, there is something a little off about the people in Aust’s shoots that I find appealing (which could in turn be concerning).
 In 2010 I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with Rachel on a shoot for submission (where I discovered that being a stylist is mainly about pretending to have muscles and learning how to use a light reflector whilst maintaining some sort of dignity). My own personal sense of style is at best questionable and at worst a flaming joke, so when the pictures turned out fabulously I knew I had worked with the best. Because that’s what the best do, isn’t it? They take the mundane and make it into something wonderful.
“You have to pour yourself into your work,” says Aust, who is a firm believer in letting your work grow and change as you do, but always knowing what you like. She tips finding her own style as the reason she began to get booked and encourages other photographers starting out to do the same.
With sights firmly set on Sydney in the next few years, Rachel says the main goal right now is to be published in more print magazines and eventually sign to an agency. In the meantime though, she is satisfied with working hard, hanging out with family and friends “and making time to play the SIMS” she laughs. Apparently even creative genius’ need their down time.
Check out www.rachelaust.com for more info.
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