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Austrian artist tracks down Preston namesakes
A feast of folk who share nothing but a first name have been photographed in Preston for an artist's unique take on her family tree.
Austrian artist Fiona Rukschcio has been travelling Europe snapping women called Fiona for her latest book of photos.
Typing her forename into an Internet search engine led her to Fiona Merrifield, a prison officer from Ribbleton and Fiona Frank, a university worker from Lancaster, who agreed to take part in the project.
The trio met up for the first time this week, when they posed for pictures outside the Harris Museum and swapped stories.
A shortage of Fionas in Ms Rukschio's home country encouraged her to visit Britain and Ireland, where the Gaelic name is much more common.
Ms Rukschio, 35, from Vienna, said: "I was obsessed with my name because there are not so many people called Fiona in Austria.
"A name shapes your identity and I wanted to make a gallery of a new family - based on a shared name."
Ms Frank, 52, said she was delighted to be among the women included.
She said: "I have been doing some work for my great-aunt Hannah, who is an artist, and Fiona (Rukschcio) was trawling the web and found me through her profile.
"It's really nice to think there are people out there who enjoy doing mad things like this.
"I was named after Fiona Campbell Walters, a model who married a millionaire, and my mum always wanted me to marry one!"
Miss Merrifield, 26, was tracked down through the Preston Caribbean Carnival website, an event she helps to organise.
She said: "I've never heard of anything like this before and that's what attracted me to do it."
Famous Fionas may be thin on the ground in Austria, but the popularity of a cartoon ogre has helped raise their profile.
Ms Rukschcio said: "A lot of people were not familiar with my name but that all changed when they saw the Shrek films, with the character Princess Fiona. Now lots of children comment on the name."
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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