Born in Nelson in 1960. Shannon graduated Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Auckland in 1983. She received a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council grant in 1989, and a grant from Creative New Zealand in 1997. She represented New Zealand at the Asia Pacific Triennale, Queensland Art Gallery in 1996 and also exhibited that year at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney. In 1998 Shannon showed at the Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. In 2000 she was included in the exhibition ACProjects, New York, Five Shows, Five Curators. Many of Shannon's photographic series are focused on her immediate domestic environment; for instance her son's building block constructions 50s lino; a stitched fabric collage of a Gordon Walters koru painting; photographs of her own childhood drawings. Shannon's recent exhibition at Sue Crockford Gallery was a series of black and white photographs of the watercolours she painted of Donald Judd's furniture at Marfa, where she stayed in 2001. In 2005 Shannon produced a suite of photographs titled 'Love Notes' which have been widely exhibited. She lives and works in Auckland.