“When Mimi told me, I swore at her, called her a slut, told her to get an abortion. I thought she could have a better life. Friends said, ‘oh Rosie (as Rosella is known), get over it, she’s all right’.

“I just realised she was going to be a mum anyway, why was it so bad at her age?

“Then I was quickly like, what are we going to call it, and was constantly going to the shops, buying stuff!’’ Rosella laughs.

Mimi (short for Amelia) was 19 and in a long-term relationship when son Mikah, now six, was born in Nimbin, northern New South Wales. Rosella was her birth partner and cried when she saw her beloved nephew and twin meet for the first time. Mimi is now a single mum.

This initial reaction inspired Rosella’s two documentary photographic series’ exploring teenage pregnancy compiled over four years, ‘We met a little early, but I get to love you longer’ and ‘You didn’t take away my future, you gave me a new one’.

Hauntingly beautiful images exploring class, poverty, stigma and gender saw Rosella, 25, chosen as one of 12 young photographers worldwide, and the only Australian, to participate in the prestigious World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in Amsterdam in early November.

The Queensland College of Arts first-class honours graduate has been nominated for the program for four years running, and was ready to give up on being selected before the age cut-off of 30.

International selectors complimented the winners on finding new ways to tell a story.

“The work we saw looked more daring. We saw photographers choosing more intimate and inclusive approaches. There was a tendency for stories with a strong element of mood and poetry.

“In this sense, we can see photojournalism using a more expansive vernacular, with photographers pushing their personal boundaries and challenging conventions.’’

It’s the latest in a number of successes for the multi-award-winning Rosella, who was named Australia’s Top Emerging Documentary Photographer by Capture Magazine, joined leading photography collective Oculi, and participated in photography festival Les Recontres D’Arles and workshop with Magnum photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti, thanks to the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards (SOYA).

Rosella is also coeditor of The Australian Photojournalist, a non-profit publication dedicated to given voice, celebrating the human condition and casting a critical eye on journalism.

“I can’t explain it, all these things I couldn’t even imagine happening! I just feel like I’m living a dream!’’ she laughs.

RAISED BY DIVORCED PARENTS, artists Judi Kent, 55, and Donato Rosella, 54, in Nimbin, Rosella and Mimi are no strangers to poverty, disadvantage and stigma.

The town, notable for its environmental initiatives and artistic community, has been described as the drug capital of Australia, a social experiment, an escapist subculture. A “strange place indeed”.

“Nimbin has this massive stigma. It’s the life you see. When we were kids, you’d see heroin overdoses on the street.

“I didn’t realise it wasn’t normal until I moved out of Nimbin,’’ Rosella recalls, across the kitchen table in the small Wooloongabba home she shares with Peruvian husband Giancarlo Perrigo Ferre, 27, and their one-year-old son João.

“I was always labelled. As soon as you say you’re from Nimbin, it’s like, oh, you’re a druggie. No, I’m not a pot-smoking hippie. I don’t like it.

“But it was a very close-knit, caring community, regardless of the hardship, the stigma of Nimbin, the drug-dealing and all that. Everybody looked out for each other.’’

Rosella has always been artistic, always wanted to be a photographer. She bought her first camera in grade six at the local chemist, after earning $80 busking for tourists. She travelled 65km by bus to and from Richmond River High School, in Lismore, every day purely because of their photographic program.

“In year nine I got my first Pentax Spotmatic. I don’t know where the money came from, it cost $90, and dad took me and Mimi up to Brisbane — it was our first time to Brisbane — to look in pawn and hock shops for cameras.

“I photographed everything. It was just something about capturing and holding on to things. The sentimental value.’’

Still, Rosella never dreamt of making a career out of her hobby, could not imagine being able to go to university — “that was for rich and smart kids, so I automatically thought, not for me!’’ The lament of a much-loved, exasperated year six teacher — “you’ll never finish high school’’ - continued to turn over in her mind, the sting perennially fresh.

At 16 Rosella earnt a scholarship from Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off the Streets and moved to Adelaide, to live with her Nonna and finish a Certificate IV in photographic imaging. It was also around this time she came to the attention of Beyond Empathy, an organisation using art to improve the lives of disadvantaged people in regional Australia, and started participating in their programs.

“They helped me see beyond the horizons of my community and its hardships,’’ she says.

At 18, back in Nimbin, a friend convinced Rosella to complete the Preparing for Success program at Lismore’s Southern Cross University. She was accepted into Queensland College of Art Bachelor of Photography, graduated with first-class honours in 2012, and now has her eye on a PhD.

“I can’t explain, there mixed emotions (on being accepted) — freaking out that I’m actually going to have to move to Brisbane, freaking out that I won’t be able to afford to live here, freaking out that I won’t be good enough, smart enough.

“But I’m pretty proud of myself. I got one credit in my whole degree and I cried, I was so upset,’’ she laughs.

SYDNEY PHOTOGRAPHER and graphic designer Wendy Kimpton has been Rosella’s mentor and friend, through Beyond Empathy, for more than six years. She, for one, is not surprised at this “unbelievable talent’s’’ success.

“Rosie’s photos are really special because they’re so truthful, they’re moments that are so real and often quite hauntingly beautiful,’’ Kimpton, 37, says.

“She’s not afraid to tackle big issues. She doesn’t shy away from moments that perhaps other photographers might, yet she is still so tender in the way she treats the subjects. When I look at her photos I never feel like they were taken without that subject’s complete 100 per cent trust in her.

“Her life experience is so instrumental in where her need comes from to tell stories of people that might be voiceless, or might be part of society that isn’t given the same outlets to tell their story or the same access to art.’’

Kimpton says Rosella has turned her experiences of social disadvantage into personal strength and is an inspiration for other young people in similar situations.

“So much is in the perception of what is possible, and if you can change the perception of people anything is possible,’’ she says. “No matter what situation you’ve been in, you can turn it on its head and use it to make the best life for yourself.’’

From participant to facilitator Rosella has been involved with Beyond Empathy for more than six years, photographing the beautifully painted pregnant belly casts made as part of the Mubali project in Woodridge and Moree, as well as helping with other programs.

While pregnant Rosella completed a Diploma of Community Service (case management) with the aim of forging a career in the arts welfare sector, continuing her long-term documentary photography as a personal love rather than a sole source of income.

“I received so much support when I was younger and I just feel that if you’re in that situation and you didn’t have someone who cares about you, and offers you that support, you could easily fall through the cracks and hit rock bottom. I just feel like I have to do it,’’ says Rosella.

“Many of the communities I work in are experiencing entrenched poverty, racism, trans-generational trauma, violence, addiction and a range of other barriers to health and wellbeing. Rather than looking at the complexities and realities of social disadvantage in Australia, society blames poor families for deviating from the nuclear family image.

“The families I work with always welcome me with open arms. To allow me into their lives, and to share with strangers their resilience, isolation and struggles is a courageous act.’’

Rosella pauses, listens to her son burbling away happily with his dad in the next room.

“People that haven’t experienced disadvantage have no idea what it’s like, to walk in those shoes. These are very complex issues. Every story and every person experiences it differently.

“I want people to realise that, to not stigmatise and judge and have such negative opinions of people that are experiencing hardship. I just really want people to empathise.’’

www.raphaelarosella.com