This series of interviews is designed for you to get to know the people who’ve chosen Rye as their home or place of work, a little more personally.
Subject of interview: Kt Bruce, photographer and journalist, has lived in Rye with her husband Martin for eight years.
Twitter or Instagram?
I’m not very good on either. I’m new to Instagram and I’d like to know how to do it better. I do not tweet.
Meat or fish?
Fish definitely, as I’m allergic to all meat. Except I can only eat cod or monkfish so it’s slightly limited.
Music or talk radio?
Music definitely. Talk radio has too many words for me, I’m dyslexic and it’s an overload to my ear. Music lifts my spirits.
Sand or shingle?
Definitely shingle because I have an absolute passion for sea glass and you don’t find sea glass on sandy beaches.
Portraits or landscapes?
Definitely portraits, that’s my job, taking portraits of famous people, including our beautiful Queen, who I photographed at least six times. Probably the most wonderful time, although I did not sleep the night before at all, was at Buckingham Palace. To be taken up the red staircase, with my equipment carried by two equerries, was wonderful.
Dog or cat?
Cat. Well I’m allergic to both, but we have three cats and I have to take two antihistamines every day to have the cats in my house. It’s a devotion to my family. We adore our cats and they are so part of our lives that I think probably if it was them or I who had to go, I would be out of the door.
Work or retirement?
I came to Rye in 2014 and thought that I had left my career behind me. My aim really was to retire and be by the sea, but my husband said that if I was put on a desert island, I would be overworked by Friday. So I’ve never retired, my clients like what I do, so I still work and I love it.
Cinema or theatre?
I love both, but at the moment I would say cinema. The Kino in Rye is fantastic, it shows really good films, we’re members, which makes me go and I think to myself support it, it’s superb.
Sun or shade?
I love the sun. I grew up in Australia. I went out aged seven, came back when I was 14 and a half. I like being brown, it makes me feel healthy and full of life. I love wearing few clothes. The thought of having to put jeans on and coats and scarves and hats, although that’s lovely in its own way; I am drawn to the sun.
Why Rye?
Well, my husband has had cancer twice and he wanted to live by the sea. At that point we didn’t know how long he would have and so if he’d said he wanted to live on the moon I probably would have gone. He wanted to be by the sea and we wanted a project. I found this house in Rye, that when my son saw it he said “I can’t find your house at the end of the road”. I said “if you’re at the end of that road, that is our house”. He said “it’s a derelict tip”, which it was and so we did it up and we adore it.
We like the fact that we can walk to the sea in ten minutes, we can go into Rye where there’s culture, restaurants, people. Also, we love Rye Harbour because of the lifeboat station and I’m press officer with my husband there. It’s such a wonderful organisation. Rye was just perfect from all angles.
Image Credits: Izzie Edwards .