Toni Greaves

Biography

Toni Greaves is a documentary, editorial and portrait photographer with a passion for storytelling. Born and raised in Australia, she has lived in both the UK and the USA. Toni was named one of the '30 Emerging Photographers to Watch' by PDN magazine in 2009. In 2010 she was a featured artist at the Images Visual Arts Festival, a biennale held in Vevey, Switzerland. In 2011 her work was selected for Visa Pour l'Image, the prestigious International Festival of Photojournalism, held annually in Perpignan, France. She has twice been featured in the Communication Arts Photography Annual, the American Photography Annual, and was a finalist at the New York Photo Awards, among many other national and international awards. Her work has been published by TIME Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Geo, Marie Claire, Polka, The FADER, Pélerin, and Sports Illustrated, among others. Her work has been exhibited worldwide, and is held in numerous private collections.

Toni holds a Masters degree in Visual Communication Design, and is a graduate of the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism program at the International Center of Photography, in New York City. She also holds degrees in both Graphic Design and Journalism.

For more information, visit Toni Greaves' website here

Artist Staement

21-year-old Lauren Franko was in college, leading a rich and full life out in 'the world', as she calls it. She had a boyfriend and plans for marriage and children. But instead of this seemingly known path, she was called to religious life and, after hearing God propose to her via a song on YouTube, has chosen to live her life as a cloistered nun.

Now 24, she has spent the past three years leading a hidden life of prayer and ritual, shielding herself from the outside world in order to focus on the spiritual realm, and a higher calling of praying to save all souls. Radical Love is a photographic narrative of the beginning of Sister Lauren's journey within a small monastic community in New Jersey, USA. Documenting her passage through the first three years of religious life, the story is a window into her early love of God. The story also reveals her daily interactions living within a community of nuns who are themselves in various stages of their own spiritual paths... the same path that lay ahead for her. At the time of starting this project, Sister Lauren had been at the monastery for just three weeks.