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DEDICATED FOLLOWERS OF FILMI
f Kelly-Ann Bobb wasn’t so
nice it would be easy for me
to find her quite annoying.
Not only is her photography
exceptional, and not only does she
have almost as many cameras as I
do, but she has managed to achieve
both of these feats in just two years.
Some of us have taken a lifetime to
get to where we find ourselves right
now in our photographic careers,
while others, like Kelly-Ann, speed
along at 100mph and seem to arrive
at the same place in a matter of
minutes. Kelly-Ann has an incredible
drive and masses of energy; as well
as, it seems, an insatiable thirst for
knowledge and experience. And she
doesn’t hang around thinking about
it – she actually gets on and does it.
A surgeon from Port of Spain in
Trinidad and Tobago, she mixes a
hectic medical schedule of
consultations and operations with a
new-found passion for shooting,
developing and printing film in all
its forms and formats. I joked that
she spends her working life looking
at the insides of people, and her
leisure time looking at their outsides.
She laughed politely. But spending
time with the outsides of people
while connecting with their insides
is the consequence of a turning
point in Kelly-Ann’s life, and has
helped her find a balance that she
says was missing before.Loss and found
‘Before exploring photography
I didn’t have a balance in my life.
I was very focused on my profession
and ignored many other aspects of
my life. Society teaches us to getScience, art and culture combine to makefilm photography a great passion forDr Kelly-Ann Bobb, and it has brought anew balance and connectedness to herlife, she tells Damien DemolderChemical
good grades at school and to find a
profession that pays a good salary,
and through that we can live ‘well’.
That’s something I believed in
wholeheartedly when I was growing
up, and I held on tightly to that
philosophy for a very long time, but
it’s a philosophy that doesn’t
necessary bring us comfort or
happiness. I’m not saying that
I wasn’t happy, but there came a
time I realised my friends had
stopped asking me to do things
because I would always be too busy
or too tired. I was too focused on my
professional goals.‘Then I experienced loss. In 2018
my mom got ill and passed away.
My loss broke that vision I had
carried, and for a moment I was able
to see other things. In seeing other
things I realised that while I love
surgery I need more balance. In my
work as a doctor I see lots of people,
young and old, who are just going
about their lives when I tell them
that what they have is terminal. It
reminds me we don’t know how
long we are going to be here. The
Covid outbreak has reinforced that,
and helped to bring me a new
perspective on the importance of
being present and connected to
people in a very real way – and
experiencing life in a very real way.
The turning point for my
photography though came through
that loss, because I’m not sure I
would have continued it with such
fervour otherwise.
‘Photography has taught me
to bring balance and has beenconnections
Friend and fellow
photographer
Jabari, shot for an
editorial project on
Fuji Provia 100F in
the Mamiya RB67