Behind Nyssa’s Lens
Words by Jes Evans
08 February 2025
“I think I’ve known my whole life that I would end up here. I loved visual art and creative writing when I was a kid, and I made my first short film when I was 12 (I think my parents still have a copy somewhere). So it was probably in early high school that my heart became really set on filmmaking, and then when I was studying film at VCA I kind of just fell into cinematography really naturally.”
I think a pivotal moment for me was actually the first time I worked with Wildebeest. When I finished studying I emailed my very modest CV to a bunch of production companies in Melbourne, hoping for pretty much any kind of camera work. Josie was the only person who responded to me, and got me onto a Jungle Giants music video to shoot BTS stills. The connections I made from that one job pretty much caused my career to snowball – soon I was camera assisting on small commercials, then did an attachment on a TV drama, then starting getting my own shooting jobs. Fast forward a couple of years and now I work solely as a DP – safe to say I’m very grateful for that music video.
“Honestly, it had never even occurred to me that being a woman might affect my career until I started working in the industry. It’s an interesting issue because I don’t think anyone actually has a problem with female or gender-diverse cinematographers, in theory – it’s more that we just don’t seem to be considered for bigger jobs as often as our male counterparts, which makes career progression a lot slower and probably feeds this idea that we’re a risk to hire because we don’t have the right experience (and the safe option is usually a white man). So I find that the biggest challenge is just getting the opportunity to level up, especially in the commercial space. It can be frustrating but I’m not too fazed by it – I try to just surround myself with collaborators who really trust my skills.”
“I definitely believe women can bring a certain level of softness and empathy to the lens which really benefits some projects. But I also think there’s a problem where often women are hired purely because the job has some kind of feminine aspect, and that’s the only reason they’re considered. A lot of the work that comes my way has pretty reoccurring themes, and as much as I love shooting work about women’s issues, I’m also interested in exploring other more “masc” themes. Give me a Toyota commercial!
I’m much more resilient than I thought. The industry can be so demanding of your time and energy, and no matter how much love you put in you’ll inevitably face disappointments from time to time. I used to find it quite difficult when I was starting out, so I’m really proud of myself for learning to embrace it.”
