Samantha Everton

Samantha Everton is a contemporary Australian artist, who lives and works in Melbourne. She is primarily a photographic artist and creates images with dreamlike and theatrical qualities.
Early life.
Everton was raised in Emerald, a small town in central Queensland. She grew up with one biological brother and three adopted siblings from South East Asia. Everton's multicultural family gave her an awareness of issues pertaining to race and culture and how people react to difference and departure from normativity. 
Her works often include motifs of innocence and thematic references to childhood.
Career.
Everton studied photography at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and graduated at the top of her class in 2003. 
At the start of her photographic career she worked as a cadet photographer for the "Melbourne Times", and volunteered in Photographic studios. 
She has since held group and solo exhibitions worldwide, and has had her images published in several magazines, including "Vogue" and the "New Yorker Magazine".
She has also won multiple prestigious awards, including First and third prize at the 2010 Paris International Photography Awards, the 2005 Australian Leica Documentary Photographer of the year award, and the 2003 AIPP Australian Professional Photography awards. 
Samantha has also collaborated and worked on the cover of "Mao's Last Dancer" by Li Cunxin.