Rory O’Keefe was sure he didn’t have a creative bone in his body. But then the 38-year-old from Wollongong found photography. For CFStrong, Rory shares what he loves about photography and the community and connections it has helped him make with other adults with CF.
It was my dog that got me into photography. She’s a good dog, except for when she sees another dog. So, I’d have to walk her early in the morning. We’d head down to the beach and go for a walk at sunrise, and I’d take photos on my phone as I went. I posted some to my Facebook page and my friends would tell me I had an eye for photography. I didn’t think much of it, until about three years ago.
Every time I went to the hospital, I’d do the long case sort of things with the doctors, to help them with their studies. And they’d always get to the hobbies question, and I never had an answer. Then one day, I was like, maybe I’ll get a camera and see if it’s something I enjoy.
Today, photography is my excuse to get out and go and explore. In the last three years I’ve been to more places around the Illawarra than I had in the previous 35 years, from beaches to waterfalls, mountain hikes to coastal trails, there are so many interesting places right on my doorstep that I would never have known about.
When people ask me what I love about photography, I think it’s just being out for sunrise, at that time of the morning it’s so relaxing. I get up at 4am for work so I just leave my alarm set and get up and go on a weekend. I love being out there when it’s dark, alone with the sounds of nature and getting to watch the world wake up around me. Which not too many people take the time to do.
One way I shared my photography was through Instagram. Before I started on Trikafta, I often used to post to Instagram about my day. And back then a lot of my day was about CF, and it sort of became like a public diary, I guess. I’ve never shared too much of the nitty gritty about the behind the scenes of living day to day with CF and it almost felt like I was writing it from someone else’s perspective. Kind of like my photography page was not attached to me and it would somehow make it less real for my family and friends.
So, I’d post a bit about what happened to me during the day or what I felt or whatever and it just sort of progressed from there. Times when I’d been in hospital, I’d post what procedures I’d had each day, when I went through a lung transplant workup, just before I started Trikafta, I would write about what tests I had, what each test involved, what the test was looking for, if I knew, it was sort of like a mini blog on daily hospital life.
It didn’t really worry me if people read it or not. It was just something that I felt like I needed to write out. It was sort of cathartic to write about my experiences. I’ve always been really laid back and never worried about anything too much—I’ve always let my family do the worrying for me. When I post an image, I like to have something to write about to go along with it, I don’t like just posting just a photo. So, I try and find something, whether it’s about the photo or my life or a bit of both, I always try and have something in there.
Posting on Instagram has also helped me connect with other people with CF. Through some of the other CF Instagram accounts that I follow, I’ve found a few others that I now talk to pretty regularly which helps when you’re going through stuff. Especially during Covid, it was nice to have people to talk to that understand the worries that come with the isolation and worry of a potentially deadly virus. I feel like it goes both ways too. If anyone ever needs to talk, I’m always happy to share my experiences and hopefully help them through a rough patch.
Having those connections is really good. I think the best part about it is just the encouragement to get out and do stuff and get moving and exercise. The people that I’ve found that I follow most, seem to be more active, they are the ones that go to the gym, ride bikes, run or that always seem to be doing something that just makes you feel like you should be doing something too.
When I’m taking photographs, I mostly stay local to Wollongong especially with early starts in summer. I grew up at the beach. I’ve lived five minutes from the beach my whole life. I can’t really swim in the ocean anymore—if I have to go under two or three waves in a row, then I’m stuffed and can’t catch my breath. But just being on the rocks or the sand and around the water is sort of calming for me. There is something about water, like even lakes, rivers or waterfalls but because I live in Wollongong mostly it’s the ocean, just being around the water, as I’m taking the photos and watching the waves come in and out, in and out it’s just like meditation for me.
After three years, it’s hard to pick a favourite from all the photographs I’ve taken. One that stands out is not for the photo. I don’t think the photo is very good, but the memory of it is.
I’ve done a couple of road trips down to Melbourne and back and during one of them I stopped at Wangaratta for a couple of nights. I remember I woke up at 1:30 in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. Being out in the country away from city lights I thought I may as well go for a drive and go find somewhere to take some astrophotos which are photos of the night sky with the stars and milky way.
I had a look on Google maps and found a lookout tower in the middle of the bush somewhere about 20 minutes away, went for a drive and about a one kilometre walk into the bush in the middle of nowhere, no one knew I was there, and I spent about an hour there taking photos of the stars and just listening to all the bush sounds and so that was a really cool experience.
I say I didn’t have a creative bone in my body until I picked up a camera. I always wanted to be creative, I tried music, I tried drawing, I tried writing. I always felt like there was something there. But I still don’t even feel creative now because I just point the camera at something I like and press the button. I rarely come up with ideas of what I want to do on a shoot, I just go out and shoot what I see. So, I don’t even know if you could call that creative. I just seem to have a good eye and I’m getting better at knowing what I’m doing on the technical side.
I can’t really explain what photography has given me. It’s just sort of become a part of who I am and what I do very quickly and very easily. It gives me an excuse to get out and explore and see places I wouldn’t normally see. I would never have stopped at Wangaratta for a couple of nights unless I was there to take photos. A couple of years ago, I did another road trip home from Melbourne and stopped at Lakes Entrance and Bermagui for a night each and just explored around that area as well. It’s just been a good way to get me out experiencing new things and wanting to travel more.
Rory O’Keefe shares his work regularly via his Instagram and Facebook pages. You can also learn more about Rory and his work via his website.
This story was published in November, 2021. If you would like to share your story, please contact us at admin@cfcc.org.au. We’d love to hear from you and so would our readers.
