Melodrama: Micheila Petersfield

Micheila Petersfield is a contemporary photographic artist based in Hobart, Tasmania. She graduated with an honours degree in fine arts from the University of Tasmania in 2017. Her self-portrait photographs borrow from the familiar aesthetics of media and fashion imagery to create subversive reconstructions of feminine tropes. In her approach to photography, she uses costume, makeup, and digital manipulation to transform her appearance into multiple personas.

She has held several solo exhibitions, including A World of My Own (2018) and Replica (2020) at Despard Gallery, and The Silver Screen (2018) at the Biennale of Australian Art in 2018. She was awarded the emerging artist prize at the Tasmanian Woman’s Art Prize in 2019 and won the Henry Jones Art Prize the same year. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Tasmania.