Jane Davenport started her photographic career as a runway photographer when her mother , Australian fashion icon Liz Davenport , came to visit her in London. Liz bought so many shoes she couldn’t fit her new camera in the suitcase and left it behind for Jane to return on a future visit home. “London Fashion Week was about to commence and I really wanted to see if supermodels were as beautiful in the flesh as in the glossies, so I snuck in as a photographer and discovered two things 1. They are and 2. I loved photography!” says Jane. Jane became a fashion catwalk regular and Liz never got her camera back!

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Now Jane captures the show-ponies of the garden as they pose in the latest spring fashion and parade down petal catwalks. “It’s not really so different from photographing supermodels” says Jane who has swapped the human kind of social butterfly for the real thing. She describes herself as an ‘Artomologist’ finding it the perfect way to define her unique mix of art and entomological persuasions. Jane’s work has featured in over 30 exhibitions and she is the insect expert at one of Australia’s leading garden and lifestyle magazines (her column is called 'Sects in the City )

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Jane became the Artist in Residence at the Wollongong Botanic Gardens in 2003 and the body of work she created, 'The Ladybird Chronicles' . is a growing phenomenon. This 70metre long giant storybook features the plants and little creatures that call our gardens home and the imagery will permanently alter your perception of insects. The installation also tells an inspirational story and explores the very human need belong and is a valuable environmental showcase, putting upa great fight for habitat conservation and the reduced use of pesticides. . The national Ladybird Chronicles tour has attracted over 500,000 visitors to Australia’s leading Botanic Gardens, Zoos and Public Art Institutes.

After speaking at the Botanic Gardens World Congress in Barcelona, Jane and the Ladybird Chronicles were invited to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin Texas. “I have always wanted to do a road trip across America and what better way than with the Ladybirds! ” says Jane. Work then began on expanding the tour to incorporate Botanic Gardens and Zoos across the States.

In between the national and international tours Jane completed a residency at the Hunter Valley Gardens. The just unveiled installation is called ‘Ladybird, ladybird’ and tells the secrets of a sophisticated lady through 10 enormous postcards. “ Ladybird, ladybird ‘ follows The Ladybird Chronicles as a body of work and the central characters are related. "The Hunter Valley Gardens are incredibly inspiring, a real ladybird haven, so how could I resist creating artwork around my favourite creatures?” says Jane.

Artist Statement

"On the Verge"

Jane Davenport seldom shoots people. There is too much organisation involved for her to relax, worrying about the subject's comfort. "I don't feel inspired staring and looking and regarding a person for as long as it takes to really see the image I want to get. " she says.

In contrast, she can quietly observe an insect for hours on end. "I like to imagine its role, its connections. I like looking at the intricate details and ways its body fits together. I wonder how or why they evolved and come up with my own solutions." Jane's work constantly looks at how our environment is shaped. " I am placing my wishes and dreams on paper through photography." says Jane

The artist has been investigating the peripheral edges of our existence for years. Pottering about at the side of roads, nature strips, vacant blocks, collecting images of the life that comes and goes on the fringe. Jane finds incredible, saturated beauty, both harmonious and ragged, in ignored spaces.

The resultant body of work is titled 'On the Verge' and the it urges the viewer to connect with nature, but it's not merely a document of vanishing places. "Personally, I am very concerend about the disapearance of beauty. Most often I feel the urgent need to go and create images after discovering yet another environmental atrocity through the media. Ladybirds and butterflies are not safe from my lens when I am worrying about whaling or clearfelling in Tasmania. I simply must go and check that life still goes on, that there is hope. Beauty is regenerative and it inspires optimism."

The process of creating "on the Verge has been cathartic for Jane, dealing with constant change in the environment. Vacant blocks don't stay that way for long, and at the tiny scale Jane works at, even a simple mowing, transforms everything.

" I make images to express wonder, love and hope for the world. In creating my work, I can explore nature, and bring it back to a scale that is digestible to me. I find being able to watch part of the world recover, to stagger forward and find yet another niche, empowering." says Jane.