Born in 1965 in NSW, Australia, photography and mythology have been lifelong passions for Margaret Dean, but it wasn’t until the advent of Photoshop that she was able to unite them both.

As a self-taught photographer and Photoshop user, her earlier works involved photographing her models on location and using computer editing to add wings - a technique which was inevitably frustrating, since it was bound by reality. Now her work has progressed to total environment creation, using photo compositing techniques that give her the freedom to faithfully express her visions.

“Even though my landscapes now are total fabrications, it is important to me that they maintain a level of realism. Without it, you lose credibility. I want people to look at my images and believe that they could be real. The highest compliment I can be paid is when someone looks at my images and says they want to go there.”

Heavily entranced by the black and white photography of a bygone era, she also possesses a large collection of fairy tales from around the world. “I love anything that transports me far away from the realities of this world. I faithfully read Pride and Prejudice once a year, I giggle out loud to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books. I escape whenever I can into World of Warcraft. I love the tragic yet poetic imagery of Dorothea Lange's Dustbowl photographs. I love staring into the faces in old photographs and wondering what became of those people. I love long road trips through empty landscapes. I wish I could time-travel to an age when people still believed in fairies. I hope I never grow up.”