Exhibition: Women in Malta – Laurie Pace
I met Laurie on a Saturday morning at the National Museum.
I was sitting by the sea with a cup of cappuccino. I was early.
It was very beautiful late autumn weather, the sunlight, cloud, and the colour of the sea just wonderful. Unfortunately there was a tourist blocking my view. He stayed in the same spot taking photos or videos for about 15 minutes, I wanted to take a nice photo to upload to my Instagram.
Just as I was trying to upload the photo from my phone, a voice said, “Are you Amanda?”
“Yes, I am. Hi Laurie!” I was happy to see her. She was dressed in a leather jacket and holding a helmet in her hand. She looked cool, I thought.
“Did you come with a bike?” I asked.
“Yes.” She nodded, running her fingers through her short hair, trying to adjust her hairstyle.
I used to ride a scooter every day when I was living in Taiwan, I understand how a helmet can ruin a hairstyle.
Soon we started to talk about the project, what the photo shoot was going to be, and also a little about life. I often go off the topic when talking to the 15 women. I am always interested in people’s life and their experience.
I found that when we talked about life, the emotion and the expression changes. That gives me an idea of their personality, even in a brief conversation. I hope that beside taking beautiful photographs of them I can also capture the personality. And I think that’s the difficult part in portrait photography.
When Laurie was talking about her travelllng plans her eyes lit up. She hopes to go to Cuba for trekking or to visit Canada again. She is Maltese, but was born in Canada.
Her experience with competing was extraordinary. She is the kind of person who has to have very good self-discipline.
“The most difficult part about training was the diet.”
I think she manages it very well as she looks in good shape.
Later, I started to think about how to style her. She would like to look feminine with her short hair. I think it’s not a problem at all, an easy task. I like the idea that women can be so changeable and have different looks and styles. All the 15 women are so different and Laurie definitely would be an interesting one to photograph.
I’m truly grateful to these 15 women who took the time to meet me and tell me a bit of their life. I like to know a bit about them, as I need inspiration for the images I want to create, and the 15 ladies certainly gave me inspiration.
Q& A
1)When you feel down, what do you usually do to make yourself feel better? How do you deal with stress?
I train to deal with stress and pressure…. After training all is well.
2)What do you enjoy the most about your work?
The finished product and the satisfaction on peoples faces after my job is well done.
3)Have you been professionally photographed before? How did you feel? (Before the shoot with Amanda)
I only had one photoshoot before, but with Amanda I was very relaxed and she put me through each photo step by step which made it so nice to be photographed. I like the way she works and she is so dedicated and patient.
4)If you knew then what you know now, what would you tell your 18-year-old self?
I would tell her go out there and do exactly what I did in life 
5)When things get tough, how do you keep yourself going?
Determination and perseverance is a gift I have, that has helped me get up mountains in life. Sometimes you do find obstacles and hard times, but you have to believe in yourself, be positive in everything you do and believe in the good of life to get you through the tough times .
6) How do you define success?
Success is achieving your goals and being happy getting there. Be who you want to be and have dreams, as from dreams reality can evolve.
Links about Laurie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Pace