In a nutshell: Fe-Archia is a record of collected thoughts, ideas and photographs.

The idea came about in two parts:

1. I was living in the USA, had just discovered Netflix, and after a bout of binge-watching Mad Men (while on breaks from my split-shift waitressing job) I realised I was very generally pissed at my boyfriend because all men were inevitably, at their very core, just like Don Draper. Binge-watching = distorted reality. Simultaneously, I’d picked up The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary as the book that identified ‘the problem that has no name.’ Here – I became enthusiastic about, and interested in, feminists.

2. I had returned home from the USA and Ash and I were on the dance floor of Mighty Mighty in Wellington. It was about 4 in the morning and there were 15-20 girls all sweaty and hair twirling and jumping on each other and interpretive dance moves and red-faced and laughing and arms in the air and singing to ELO’s ‘Evil Woman’. All of those girls either: worked for herself / was on a salary / had found her true métier and was deeply passionate about what she did. And all of them totally owned who she was. And this was when the quote that defined Friedan’s feminism, for me, popped into my head: “The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself as a person is through creative work of her own.”

So it began. What does the word feminism mean to an individual today? Where does the creative idea come from? How do we generate ideas? We wanted to start a conversation about feminism and creativity and link these things up. Each interaction has been significant. Common threads have been woven through different people’s stories. And collectively these records have produced a stimulating narrative on stuff like: Beyonce, life changing TED talks, making babies, the fear of being crap sometimes and embracing uncertainty. One day (soon) it will become a book.


Whitney Nicholls-Potts, Undone Girl

Photography: Ashley Church @ Dinosaurtoast

A note on the photography:
I aim to capture the interviews as honest and openly as I possibly can, I come along utilising the fly on the wall approach, with the intent to capture the true essence of the discussions. Each time I come away with a huge appreciation for other humans going through life. I am passionate about learning of other peoples perspectives and life experiences which I hope come across in the imagery.

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