The migrant story is the centrifugal force in Annie Kavanagh’s botanical photography. English born Annie lived in several countries including, the Middle and Far East, before arriving in Australia in 1998 and then to Roselyn, an 1887 estate in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia, Annie’s floral inclinations became obsession; her work in part a reflection of her environment, but moreover a process in which she reflects on the connection between flowers, her memory and her lived experience as a migrant.

Having studied a diploma in illustrative photography at the Photography Studies College, Melbourne and receiving her training in traditional photographic and darkroom techniques, Annie today reaches for the intimacy and immediacy of smartphone photography. The result are images that resonate and reverberate rather than distil, echoing the aesthetic of the Dutch Masters whilst speaking more to the ephemerality of life lived between different settings.

The Roselyn Project, and more recently, her Alice series, represents the ongoing affair between Annie’s artistic and horticultural endeavours. Annie has been a finalist in the Lethbridge Gallery Small-Scale Art Award 2026, York Botanic Art Prize 2020, featured in Galah magazine 2024 and exhibited in exhibitions including the Artisans in the Garden exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney 2025.

Throughout her work, Annie ultimately reflects on the idea that the migrant story, whatever the circumstances, is always personal.