Women In Photography

Rachel Nixon is a British-Canadian fine art photographer and former journalist based in Vancouver.

Working across conceptual and narrative forms, Rachel explores themes such as heritage, womanhood, grief, and memory. Her work is exhibited and collected internationally, and in 2025 she was named a finalist for the prestigious Sony Alpha Female Award.

Rachel graduated with honours from the VanArts professional photography programme in 2019. Before committing full time to visual art, she had an extensive career as a journalist and news executive for the BBC, CBC and others. Having lived and worked in the UK, US, and Canada, her international experience brings a thoughtful perspective to her practice.

The editor of WE ARE Magazine, Rachel plays a key role in shaping and sharing the voices of women in photography.

Gabrielle Motola grew up between the United States and Canada, later living in France, the United Kingdom and Iceland. This early movement shaped her interest in how people connect, communicate and relate across cultures.

Her work uses reality not as a record but as material, exploring intimacy, identity and the ethics of relating. With a background in psychology and a decade working in cinema as an editor and colourist, her practice is shaped by sensitivity to perception, light and emotional nuance.

Her books include An Equal Difference (2016), exploring gender and cultural resilience in post-2008 Iceland, and Elūl (2025), a meditation on perception, attachment and relationships. She is co-director of the Photobook Club Collective, supporting independent publishing.

Alongside her practice, she works as a specialist adviser in photographic art, supporting artists in building sustainable, self-determining practices.

Allie Crewe is a UK-based photographer whose work explores change, memory, and identity. She creates collaborative portraits that witness lives in transition, reflecting on what is both healed and lost. Her practice often draws on personal histories, uncovering women’s stories that might otherwise remain unseen, weaving together portraiture, staged images, and still life to explore memory, inheritance, and experience.

Allie holds a Master of Fine Arts in Photography (Distinction) and is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society. She is a five-time finalist and winner of the Portrait of Britain and Portrait of Humanity awards, with commissions for Arts Council England, the NHS, and The Science Gallery London. Her work has been exhibited across the UK, including Ffotogallery Wales and Photo London, and featured in The Guardian, The Observer, The Telegraph Magazine, Vogue, and BBC News. 

Prints are held in private collections and are available for purchase. She welcomes commissions and collaborations.

Kat Mahale’s photographic practice sits in a thoughtful and quietly powerful space, one that moves beyond simply making images and instead explores how photography can help us better understand ourselves.

Working with themes of identity, representation and lived experience, Kat creates opportunities for people to be seen on their own terms. Her approach to portraiture is collaborative and reflective, encouraging a slower, more considered process where presence and trust are central.

Alongside her own work, Kat facilitates projects that invite deeper engagement with photography, not just as a visual medium, but as a way of exploring feeling, memory and personal narrative. Her practice offers a gentle but meaningful shift away from perfection, towards authenticity and connection.

Kat is also an active volunteer with the RPS Women in Photography group and is currently writing a feature on the photographers’ experiences for The 40% Project, capturing the stories and insights behind the portraits.

As part of this ongoing exploration, Kat is currently inviting women to take part in her latest project, WOMEN, a continuation of her work around voice, visibility and experience.