Redhead local Tracey Keogh's photographic exhibition opens on Sunday with a twist: the launch of a towel range featuring her nature photography

"I'm a greenie at heart a little ... actually, not a little, a lot. The water is important to me. I've had a lot to do with protecting the ocean and I'm in activist groups with a link to the water and keeping it clean," says the photographer and masseuse. "I go to the beach most mornings, sometimes I swim, sometimes I am playing around in the shore with the camera.

When the COVID-19 curtain fell last year, Keogh put her massage therapy business on hold and found herself with more time to enjoy and photograph her natural habitat.

The result of those weeks roaming Redhead and other local beaches, camera in hand, will be seen at her photographic exhibition opening at Thrive Wellness Hub in Wickham on May 2.

Keogh, 55, will also use the exhibition to launch a series of "sand-free" microtowels, each splashed with her nature photography, mostly coastal scenes.

"I joked with friends saying I have been rolling and washing towels for 17 years as a masseuse and the whole idea of going into a new business dealing with towels is amusing," she says, adding she still works as a masseuse.

One of the first women to get her surf bronze medallion at Redhead Surf Club, and a member of the first female team that competed in the club, Keogh worked at length as a printer for Kodak before branching into professional photography. When her sons reached the age where "they could get themselves out of jail", she picked up her camera again and began taking images of the music scene in Newcastle, then of nature.

A random chat with friend Michelle Ebbin, founder of local clothing manufacturer JettProof, inspired her towel idea: "Michelle saw an image I had taken of a storm cloud over Redhead beach, and said 'That needs to be on a towel, it's beautiful."

It was important to Keogh that the towels, which are lightweight and remove sand with barely a shake were made in Australia.

They are sold online and Keogh hopes to develop others for businesses for charitable fundraising use.

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