Subject: Rachael Campbell – Occupation: Entrepreneur and Founder of www.rachaelcampbell.com  – Location: Melbourne Botanical Gardens – Date: March 2013 – Word: Love – Eye Colour: Brown

Invisible threads are the strongest ties – A connection founded on trust and spiritual awareness, positivity and support, Rachael’s presence in my life has already left an indelible imprint upon my consciousness. Her ability to exuberate such vivacity and share her profound charisma not only empowers me but teaches me to appreciate all that I am, to embrace my fears and challenge myself.  
Her beaming smile is infectious and her internal beauty has really warmed my heart and my own personal story.

Rachael’s integrity is endorsed through her positive self-acknowledgement, commitment to pursuing her own optimum health but more deeply, she motivates, teaches and shares her journey with us. 
I am forever grateful that our paths have crossed and I see Rachael as a mentor, and a truly admirable and unique spirit.

You empower, you inspire, you simply believe.

[Simply put, in a nutshell, who are you?] - I am a kind, giving, loving spirit living in a beautiful soul. I am a healer at my core, someone who loves connecting with people. I find people fascinating. I am someone who lives life with very little judgement of others. I believe we are all doing, the best we can each and everyday. 

[What does style mean to you?] - “ Style is a sense of my personal expression, expressing the beauty within myself. It’s a reflection of how I feel internally. My style is a place where I express my confidence, femininity, freedom and grace. I make an effort daily to feel amazing in my own personal style. Colours light up my life.”

[How did you begin to uncover your core being, your personal truth?] - ”My journey too uncovering my core being has been a challenging one but very rewarding. I have found my personal truth through being honest with myself and others, reaching a point of forgiveness and allowing myself to be vulnerable. Allowing myself to feel, see and understand the pain, anger, frustration and sadness that I have experienced in life, has allowed my soul to open right up and live in it’s essence. My personal healing has allowed me to step right into my true purpose, which is healing women intuitively. I have learnt how important it is too feel, listen, believe and trust in my intuitive voice. I would not change any life experience that I have had, I believe I have been given each and everyone of them, as a gift to find my personal truth.”

[What is it that makes you empower/motivate yourself?] - ”My driving force that motivates and empowers me are several things. Seeing my mother go through so much internal pain throughout my childhood and loosing my father at a young age, are my two biggest motivators. Something I realised at a young age is that, ‘life is short’ and we must make the most of every single day. Each day, I try to live my life with purpose, passion, gratitude, energy, love and balance. I am so grateful that I have taken time out in my life to heal and step into an empowered Woman, who now loves herself unconditionally. Things that empower me; family, friends, love, food, health, exercise, nature, animals, women, a true deep connection with people and guiding women to heal.”

[Why raw food, how does this choice influence the rest of your life?] – “Raw food has been a big part of my life for the past 8 years, I was intuitively guided to this way of enjoying living plant based foods. Throughout my childhood and teenage years I felt a very heavy energy around my body. The day I started eating raw food the energy started to lift, my body spoke loud and clear, that this food feed my soul and energised my spirit.

When I eat and look at a beautifully prepared raw dish, I can feel the force of energy it gives my body, it’s incredible. I feel light, alive, a sense of clarity and completely satisfied. Still to this day 8 years on, I feel the same effects. I was very fortunate last year to travel to the USA and attend the Matthew Kenney Academy. This experience opened my eyes to another world of raw food. The academy is an educational institution of raw and cutting edge living cuisine. People think raw food is a simple salad or sliced carrot and celery, it’s the totally opposite it’s about flavours, presentation, colours, nutrients, nutrition and energy that’s in living food. It’s all in the education, I feel the world is starting to become more consciously aware of the importance of the food that we feed our bodies, which is very exciting.”

[Life can throw anything at us. Mentally, how do you cope with staying true to you and not allowing negativity to shadow your spirit?] – I was bought up with a Father, that told us constantly ‘there is a positive, in every negative’. This speech of expression has definitely taught me a lot throughout my life. It has been a very big gift, that I was given at a young age. I choose to see the best in things. The way we live life is a choice, the language we use and mindset we have is a choice. I am human and I definitely have times, where I catch myself being negative. What I have learnt over the years are different tools to change and correct my mindset when I hear myself being negative, this has helped me a lot, this is what I guide and teach women about.

Get connected with the ever so empowering and courageous Rachael Campbell through her social media networks below:

Website: http://www.rachaelcampbell.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachaelJCampbell

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rachaelcampbel

Instagram: http://instagram.com/rachaelcampbell

[Sondering Core Style - Who are you?]

*Disclaimer: All photographs in a bLANk’s ‘Sondering Core Style’ are taken by bLANk and rightly owned by bLANk

I have a biological brother and I have a few ‘brothers from another mother’, all of which happen to be my own brothers best friends, but as I have grown up, they too have become closer to me, rather influential.

When you find someone who cares for you just as they would for their own sister, you find a bond on a new level that is no longer distanced by age, a connection rather focused on growing and sharing, teaching each other through our own experiences. Something that I have been fortunate to attain and contribute within my friendship with this gifted and sharp, charismatic and kind man who I have grown up with. Denis has taught me that no matter what our circumstances, we have the responsibility to accept conditions as they exist or accept the responsibility for changing them.

[Who are you?] - “Russian, Ukrainian – I moved to Australia when I was two years old. I have only been back once and it is the complete opposite lifestyle to here. I can speak fluent Russian but can’t read or write it, I can also spell any word with numbers.” (That is legit – every word I have ever asked, him to spell has been spot on i.e. a = 1, b = 2 etc)

[Does having that history in your family, that rich Russian blood, does it somehow give you some sort of grounding?] – “Definitely, it changes everything. It’s my roots.  That history puts my life into perspective, especially when I visited three years ago. It makes me feel like I appreciate things a lot more than others do.”

[Do you reckon your style is something heavily reflected by your past, your roots?] – “Roots influence style. My style visually depends on where you see me but the general style I feel I am is laid back, relaxed, approachable and easy going.”

[Why would you say you are approachable?] – “Simply put long hair and a bit of stubble. I had short hair for years and I looked so generic. With longer hair, for me, it suggests a lack of conformity, especially when everyone is in a suit all day and having hair that touches your collar, it just shows you aren’t afraid to be different, to show that to people.”

[Are you aware of your internal style; are you comfortable with it and do you feel it’s an easy thing to find?] – “I know who I am; we all have that core personality.  It’s like knowing what you want to do when you grow up when you’re in primary school, it is very rare, but if you have got it, good on you. It’s your language, the way you speak, it all adds to how you express your style.”

[People talk style, they think clothes but knowing you quite well, I know that sometimes you’re seen with your top off quite a bit! We’ve spoken about it before but you have been considering topless waitering, do you reckon people’s reaction towards you in that aspect is different when you are just topless at a party for fun?] – “All of a sudden people change the way they think of you because it’s now something you are getting paid for. I don’t see anything wrong with it. In the company of friends there is no harm done. The only reason people hide it is because they feel like they are losing something by showing their body because it feels inappropriate which I totally disagree with. You need to celebrate yourself; we are allowed to feel that sense of freedom.”

[What’s been an experience that has given you that huge sense of freedom?] – “The Green Mile. You run a mile butt naked at university in the middle of the day through buildings and all over the grounds. It is freedom, it draws back to that, it isn’t something people do, it’s liberating and new, an experience people don’t normally do!”

[You are involved in a fair few things but what would be the biggest and best opportunity you have been offered?] – “My internship at General Motors as a Materials Engineer, my grades are far from the best but I applied online, a phone screening when I was in Malta (hung-over *laughs), then a group assessment at the HQ followed by a panel interview grilling me about me. Once they began to ask me typical questions about leadership I started talking about my involvement with the University Science Committee where I had ran $100,000 events, signing decent cheque’s with my name and soon they became enthralled by this they stopped questioning about material engineering altogether, they focused on who I actually was.”

[Has university been a big change from high school life?] – “Different lifetime, I remember little from my school life. Suppressed memories no doubt. Dull is a very positive work to use, depressing would be more accurate. Coming from a non English speaking background, to a Jewish primary school then to an Anglican high school, and for a non sporty kid I sat scholarship after scholarship eventually landing a 50% scholarship is another story in comparison to my life at university. Simply put, I wouldn’t want to be Denis’ friend at school, he wasn’t the cool kid. I played piano and picked up violin pretty quickly, played in an orchestra and did advanced math’s all through school, ending up doing university math’s in VCE. You couldn’t make friends with that kind of background but university is a whole new ball game. I cracked out of my shell.”

[Do you feel like you are living as much as you can right now?] – “I am trying to get as much done in the time I have. I have been thinking quiet regularly about the fact that I don’t like reading books, when everyone is reading the synopsis, I would prefer to have someone tell me about the book. Say I get to 99 years old and I sit there with another person who is 99 years old and talk about a lifetime of lessons some I learnt straight away, others that took time, by sitting with that other person for an hour I hear their story from their perspective and save 99 years of my life.  Learn more from speaking from people, it’s more efficient; I hate seeing people waste their time. I just feel there are just as many interesting people in the real world as there are in a book. People don’t have the confidence to meet people and to relate enough to trust them with their life story.”

[You do stand up comedy; wakeboard and snowboard, work in some pretty cool high events around Melbourne, how do you go when people don’t really ‘like you’ per say?] -  Whether people like me or not, if they do, cool I have made a new friend, if they don’t awesome, I will take half a step to my right and find a different person. I don’t know who I am, how are they meant to know who I am.

[Something about your final year (of 5 years) of university you are looking forward to?] – A business idea, essentially inventing materials. You mix existing materials to get new properties. Self-healing coats for cars are around but it hasn’t been commercialized yet. This new paint is a new technology, a new chemical. You spray it on a care and you can take a stanley knife to it and it will heal itself in the sunlight. It’s pretty cool stuff!”

[A sentence or quote that resonates well with you at the moment or says something about what stage of life you are at?] – “There is just one going through my head from Troy right now. Basically a woman is brought to the tent all battered and bruised and the solider asks Troy (Brad Pitt), what more could you possibly want? In response he said, “I want what every man wants, I want more”. This sounds so selfish but I mean it a completely different way, its more that I have realised you are limited by only how much you think is enough and once you have enough that’s fine but what you think is enough is different for every person. For me right now I want more, I need more. It’s not money, girls or work, its something I am not sure of it. It might not be someone else’s more, but it is my own and I will strive for it.”

[Sondering Core Style - Who are you?]

*Disclaimer: All photographs in a bLANk’s ‘Sondering Core Style’ are taken by bLANk and rightly owned by bLANk

[Sondering Core Style - Who are you?]

5 first cousins with distinctive yet rapidly evolving personalities embraces the youth of my family, but seeing 2 cousins accepting and acknowledging the power and strength tied to individual self-awareness, shows that age is no barricade to internal style. Jai (15 years) and Sahara (12 years) began to intrigue me as I tuned in with their prevalent ownership and control over their solid but nonetheless emergent outward echo.

Myah’s (10 years) innocence and rawness prompts the purity associated with young fresh minds. The little blondes untouched psyche is in a position to be majorly influenced by whatever environs her and in that, is it this that really fine tunes who we become, do we become of our surroundings?

The resilient and spirited ones will know that we make our own environment and form our own lives but we are shaped by our experiences. It is just the matter of when will ones mind accept the experiences and allow our inner guide to come forward and present us, our core ignited style.

Every experience in life, everything with which we have come in contact with in life, is a chisel which has been cutting away at out life stature, molding, modifying, shaping it. We are part of all we have met. Everything we have seen, heard, felt or thought has had its hand in molding us, shaping us. A person is either the effect of his environment or is able to have an effect upon his environment.

Subject: Jai Trebilcock – Occupation: High School Student – Location: The Sustainable House – Date: January 2013 – Word: Renewed – Eye Colour: Brown

[What is style to you?] – “Style shouldn’t feel sculpted around other people’s choices of expression, it is about accepting myself. When someone looks at me that I may see again, when I am walking down the street, I want them to see a style and feel an impression of what suits my personality best by mixing and matching the type of clothes I choose to express my character with.”

[When did style kind of strike you?] – “Our last trip was to America and it made me realise that I was in charge of my own style, instead of Mum choosing my clothes. I found this connection with the old school vintage and then restored style of fashion which filled me with the confidence to go out and be a bit different.”

[If you can express yourself effectively, people will respond really well towards you, have you found that is something that has grown since your style has begun to come through?] – “For sure, about 3 months ago I would have said Graphic Designer (GD) was my future but now I am not so sure, I guess I was blinded by my own ambitions and I saw myself as only part a GD and there was something else there so I asked myself what else do I love, and I love to write and draw. The drawing became so powerful when I merged them with words because then after a while I almost felt as if I was drawing with words and this really allowed people to understand me properly.”

[Is writing on the cards for a potential career possibility?] I don’t even know where I got the skill to write from but I would love to do a University degree in creative writing or something along those lines. I was thinking of doing a blog where I write a chapter a day, just a thought.”

[Have you always had this creativity or has this come from somewhere?] – Actually, when I was younger I had this, instead of imaginary friends; I had this world I created called ‘Hirax’ that I could escape to basically everyday on the trampoline. All the things that I loved and wanted in my life at that point in time inspired it. I regret not writing it down because I could have made a pretty cool story! My creativity is now at a different stage, more mature so it would have been nice to be able to grow that idea with my thoughts now.”

[What was it about this world that was so sacred to you?] – “I would normally go into feeling really anxious or upset but in it I saw kind of, a projection of how I wanted to see myself, like a childhood dream, superhero kind of thing. When I came out of this world I was genuinely quite relaxed and that’s why I was so protective over it.”

[Is there something nowadays that helps you relax or is it still the trampoline?] – I have found different mediums for it, more with my music; I feel my music is a collection of all the pieces that make me.

Jai’s Mantra(s): “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something is the greatest accomplishment.”

“For every second you are angry you lose 60 seconds of happiness. “

Subject: Sahara Trebilcock – Occupation: High School Student – Location: The Sustainable House – Date: January 2013 – Word: Texture – Eye Colour: Brown

[What does style mean to you?] – If you have a word that goes with style, I would with unique. Being a trendsetter or a trend follower, I don’t even think like that, I just wear what I want to wear, basically I wear what I am. It is about what you feel comfortable in and best expresses yourself to the world.”

[So potentially there could be a third Interior Designer (ID) in the family, what is it about ID that captures you?] – “I don’t like things plan or simple, I don’t like a simple room that doesn’t have much in it, a room has to tell, I guess, a story. My room’s atmosphere is very light but everywhere you look there is something different. I feel as ease when I walk into my room because I have created it.

[Do you feel it accepts who you are and shows your mind?] – “Definitely, it is really important to me to feel comfortable by my surroundings and be surrounded by the things I love and like.

[Are there any influences in your life in regards to who you are becoming?] – “Its funny how you evolve, when I was little I would never have imagined I would be the person I am today. I feel that there is a certain level of influence, and I think it comes from Mum because she really has created this positive space we live in and I feel it has a power.  But I know that the choices I make will shape me and who I am going to be because in the end I really have no idea who I am going to eventually be, which is kind of exciting.”

Sahara’s Mantra: “Dance like no one is watching you, love like you have never been hurt before, sing as no one can hear you, live as though heaven is on earth.” 

[Myah: She dances everywhere in the house, like she cant walk she just dances!]

Subject: Myah Trebilcock – Occupation: Primary School Student – Location: The Sustainable House – Date: January 2013 – Word: Still on her word mission leaning towards ‘Simple’ – Eye Colour: Brown

I adore the way that Myah’s photograph really allows us to see how style begins at any age, how confidence and vulnerability begin to shape once we explore the avenues around us to then determine which was we want to walk. 

[What does style mean to you?] – “I am really not sure…”

[Myah what do you do after school, what happens in your world?] – “I normally eat and watch TV like Nickelodeon or Disney and not do my homework [Laughs]. Our homework is due on the Friday so I normally leave it to the last minute and rush it.”

[I saw that you had made a circle paper garland, was that apart of your procrastination?] – “I wanted something to keep me occupied that was crafty so I choose to cut out the circles because that shape represents kind of letting things just happen, it flows and they are easy going like I am.”

[When you grow up do you want to do something in design or have you already got other plans?] – “I want to do what Mum does, to become a Speech Pathologist because I love little kids an also helping people but it could change.”

Disregarding young people as ‘kids’ that don’t ‘know as much we do’ or ‘are too young’ is the biggest mistake we can make. The theories children build, whether they are right or wrong are not capricious. They are logical and rational, and are firmly based in evidence and their experience thus far. Children are natural scientists – they are willing to let curiosity strike them and inquire about the world that surrounds them. Discriminating or classing people because of an age bracket will destroy the potential for authentic creativity. Style accepts all ages, style is any age.

Youth is sweet, youth is growing.

[Sondering Core Style - Who are you?]

*Disclaimer: All photographs in a bLANk’s ‘Sondering Core Style’ are taken by bLANk and rightly owned by bLANk

[Introducing my 'Sondering Core Style' - Who are you?]

Subject: Casey Trebilcock – Occupation: Interior Designer + Nutritional Medicine University Student – Location: A street with a white brick fence – Date: January 2013 – Word: Natural – Eye Colour: Brown

Have you ever stood at a train station and wondered “where are they going?”, sat next to someone on an aero plane and thought “why are you travelling?”, looked at someone doing their job and wondered “how did you get there?”, seen someone crack a smile reading something and wonder “what’s so good?”, have you ever just wondered “who are you?”.

As a designer and a curious mind, I crave to engineer a personal story apprehended by the senses, set free from external oppressions but to write a tale true to my developing style.

An understanding of my own identity and self-esteem comes from acknowledging my style roots. I have found if I can’t grasp or express the way I see my own world, I consciously know I cannot move forward.

I am deeply intrigued by people’s internal momentum, their motives, routine or chaos, why and what makes them tick. More specifically, how their mind comes to be exposed externally, echoing individual style, whether it is seen as vulnerable or unyielding, style embodies our character.

“When people say they hate you for what you are, tell them that it feels better than being loved for what you are not. It is no good wondering through life wanting to be someone, you have to be clear who that someone is.” 

My style is becoming a grounding, the bases at which I can find homage in my foundations – the reasoning that comes with ‘why’. It has taken me day in day out, a determined and open mind, extreme lows and mountainous highs to uncover my ‘style’. A style that I know recognises the beauty in simplicity, lets colour tell stories, appreciates the fine detail, a style that knows that mental struggle, perfectionism and a bay of emotions are all tied to my ‘flair’.

Style whispers, style evolves, and style is mastery. Sondering Core Style is an opportunity for me to appreciate an unlimited network of people’s life stories. To see them as they are but more importantly, to learn from each other, because every one we meet, knows something we don’t.

Why photographs and an interview?

The universal saying ‘a picture tells a thousand words’ whether the words or story we take from a picture be the same, we never really have the complete understanding of what it is trying to tell us without an explanation from the creator. We can assume, think, create all we want but without a proper description we will not be exposed to all that it is.

A photograph will start their story but their words will finish it – you can see all that they are for what they wear and who you ‘think’ they are, but until you investigate their lyrics, you won’t know their song.

Get rid of judgment, judgment prevents us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances, go with an open mind, an inquisitive one and see everyone as somebody, not just anybody.

Why headless photographs?

There is something powerfully compelling about the way our body language can influence an impression and mark what ourselves and others think of us. The way we hold ourselves echoes a high or low self-confidence, assured or uncertain; it gives us the ability to either share or shy away from the world.

People today will take us on face value. The first impression is made within a split second whether we like to think of it or not – it is made and it can be hard to change. Your face and the expressions you choose to bare will give people ammunition whether you are weak or strong; people tend to remember your face rather than your name – that in itself, says enough that we don’t hear people’s words. You can take them as their clothes and their stance and miss out on something original because by doing that we won’t ever catch their truth.

I want to keep their face something of a secret, so that we cannot judge, so that we can hear their words 100%, so that we can embrace who they are on the inside first.

Once we can appreciate others lives, the richer the emotional connection will be between us.  We should care that other people exist as intensely as you do.

The Back Drop?

Through natural and open-air background’s, we see an unpolluted and wholesome side, we cannot be judged by what we have around us or what we relate ourselves with, the background is an expression of how we naturally are.

My back drop – A White Brick Fence – Why? -  I am made up of a whole myriad of pieces all linked together, trying to find where everything fits. A brick wall does show’s a complete structure. Why White? White represents bLANk and bLANk is where it all started – it allows my colours to ‘pop’ and goes back to acknowledging my style roots, finding that grounding – White has allowed me to create. 

Fashion stuns. Style delights. Fashion costs. Style is priceless. Fashion is mindless. Style is intelligent.

Fashion is fascistic. Style is individualistic. Fashion changes. Style evolves. Fashion is matter. Style is spirit.

Fashion comes from outside. Style comes from within. Fashion is self-conscious. Style is self-assured.

Fashion glares. Style glows. Fashion is slavery. Style is mastery. Fashion is literal. Style is original.

Fashion declares. Style insinuates. Fashion is serious. Style is ironic. Fashion is reproducible. Style is inimitable.

Fashion is safety. Style is courage. Fashion is clothes. Style is character. Fashion is this minute. Style is forever.

Fashion restricts. Style liberates. Fashion is rigid. Style is spontaneous. Fashion is surface. Style is substance.

“Accept who you are and revel in it.”

I have found the more I let go of the reigns and let the natural course of missions and mishaps evolve around me, a more pure state of being revealed itself. I feel that with comprehending my style I am living my truth, an individual truth that we are all born with but have to find.

“You can meet people you never knew, who live next door and would love to make lemonade form all those excess lemons on you lemon tree. We are always embarrassed to go fruit harvesting in someones else yard, but hey, what if we were going to make jam from the local street party?!” -

If we took care of our own backyards, shared a little love with our neighbour and cared about our immediate universe, maybe the broader universe would start looking a little more friendly. Just a thought.” - Dumbo Feather , Conversations with Extraordinary People

sonder. (n.) The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and as complex as your own – populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness – an epic story that continues visibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee or tea in the back ground, as a blur of traffic passing on the high way, as a lighted window at dusk. 

I am extremely eager to share with you the people I have spoken to and what they have taught me already, regardless of age, everyone can teach you something, just give ‘someone, anyone and everyone’ your time.

The Challenge:  To strip it back bare, raw and use the human spirit as a starting point, to simply ask anyone, someone and everyone, “who.are.you?”.

*With thanks to Emma Round for her beautiful photography skills to capture my style http://www.iphoneogram.com/u/248542089

[Sondering Core Style - Who are you?]