[3] Ferran was first recognized as a contemporary photographic artist during the 1980s[3] due to her works: Carnal Knowledge and Scenes on the Death of Nature.
[3] Ferran’s work is motivated by the Australian colonial period; her main interest involves exploring the lives of nameless women and children.
[8] The women were dressed in long flowing plain white garments with stony facial expressions in order to recreate the appearance of a neoclassical sculpture.
[9] Her work, Scenes on the Death of Nature I, 1986 was featured in Part I of the Know My Name exhibition of Australian women artists in 2020-21 at the National Gallery of Australia.
It returned again to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in July 1999 for the exhibition ‘What is this thing called photography?’[11] Lost to worlds includes over a decade's worth of photographic work.
The work conjures with Australia's shameful colonial past and is part of an international trend in art practice that is described as the "archival turn.
"[12] One female factory was located in Hobart, the other was situated in the centre of Tasmanian on the border of the small town of Ross;[3] all that remains of the latter prison today are one building, piles of dirt and a mess of stones.