Ava Margueritte
Captured by Pano Media
Turning Burden Into Value
In this talk, Ava Margueritte reflects on growing up neurodivergent and learning to live with two competing narratives: the belief that she wasn’t capable, and the quiet conviction that she was meant for something bigger. Diagnosed young with dyslexia, CAPD, and ADHD, she shares how early expectations shaped her sense of self, and how unlearning those limitations became part of her creative work.
Ava traces the role community has played throughout her life. From her mother pushing back against educators who underestimated her, to mentors who encouraged her to keep going, her journey has never been about individual resilience alone. It has been about people who refused to let her shrink. That support became the foundation for her confidence as both an artist and an advocate.
Her photographic practice began with a fascination for light and shadow, but evolved into something more introspective. She describes feeling split between two selves, with the camera acting as a bridge between them. Realizing a single image couldn’t hold the complexity of her experience, she turned to the book format as a more fitting container for nonlinear narratives. Her recent body of work, nothing we hadn’t seen before but we kept quiet, revisits landscapes tied to her teenage years and mental health, confronting memory, isolation, and reinvention.
She also speaks about collaboration and initiative, sharing how a simple social post led to a multi-venue book launch and pop-up photo festival. Through projects like Sugar Crash Cry, a self-taught drawing and watercolour series, she explores the tension between structure and chaos, perfectionism and release. Ava closes by reframing neurodivergence as a source of perspective and creative value, and by advocating for greater accessibility and inclusion in the arts.
avamargueritte.format.com
@avamargueritte
