I originally met the ebullient Vee Speers as she signed books for her newly released series “The Birthday Party” at Jackson Fine Art’s booth at Paris Photo in 2008. We chatted briefly as I admired the delightful images from the series (and which I wish I had purchased one at the time…heavy sigh!). A few months later another collector and friend of mine in Paris mentioned that she wanted to visit Vee’s studio…would I care to join her? I leapt at the chance and the ever-hospitable Vee invited us to dinner at their apartment/atelier in central Paris. That was the beginning of a long friendship that has spanned more than a decade as I have continued to admire and collect the exciting output of this talented artist.
Vee Speers is a Paris-based Australian artist who fell in love with photography in the 70’s while assisting her father in his converted caravan darkroom and was mesmerized by seeing his portraits appear like magic. Following art school in Brisbane in the 80’s, Speers worked as a Stills Photographer for ABC Television in Sydney. In 1990, a short stay in France became a permanent move to Paris, which according to her is a place with “unlimited potential and endless creative inspiration”. By the end of the 90’s, Speers’ path was being forged as a photo artist, and since then she has been an engaging viewer around the world with the dramatic tension of her story telling through portraiture. Speers has exhibited in museums, galleries, art-fairs and festivals around the world, and her work has been published in features and covers of more than 30 international magazines, with 4 sold-out monographs of her work. Her work has been acquired by the Sir Elton John Collection, Michael Wilson Collection, Hoffman Collection U.S., Carter Potash Collection, Morten Viskum Collection, Alan Siegel, Lawrence Schiller, DZ Bank, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Museum 21C, Kentucky, the George Eastman House, and Hudson Bay Company Art Fund among others. Jackson Fine Art Gallery of Atlanta, GA represents her (www.jacksonfineart.com).
