Gemma Wallflower
- Photography Darren McDonald
- Fashion Megha Kapoor
- Featuring Gemma Ward
Gemma defies labels. She is of course a model, in the super sense of models, but she is also an actress, writer and artist, who studies at the Susan Batson Studio in New York, opens a Prada show in Milan and lives on beach with her partner and young daughter in Byron Bay, NSW. “I live my life in the moment” she reflects, “but my priorities change”.
The first thing you notice about Gemma Ward is not her otherworldly beauty, not her height, not what she is wearing. You feel her presence, calm and luminous.
Gemma is on set in the studio, on a baking 40 degree Sydney day, but she sits patiently under the bright lights, cool and unflappable. ‘I like working with new photographers, and old friends,” she smiles.
She follows her heart, reading scripts, writing short stories, and immersing herself in the classics; her current read is The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins’ famed gothic mystery from 1859. “I move between all the disciplines,” she says. “ I like to explore darker territory sometimes”.
At the end of a long day, the car arrives to take her to the airport, and back to the beach. She scrapes the make-up from her face, pulls her hair back and slips on a simple cotton dress and sandals. “I love it there. We have lots of friends with kids. It’s a good life.”
- Words Kirstie Clements
- Makeup Peter Beard
- Hair Daren Borthwick
- First Photographic Assistant Nick Shaw
- Second Photographic Assistant Oly Begg
- Digital Operator Jack Younger
- Fashion Assistant Kaila Mathews
- Model Gemma Ward @ IMG