SELF PORTRAIT
My career journey began serendipitously in my high school's chemistry lab. The chemistry teacher had converted a storage area into a small darkroom for an after-school photography club. Under the amber glow, I was mesmerised watching that first black-and-white print appear in the developer. From that moment photography became my life.
After leaving education at 19, having studied Pure and Applied Maths, Physics, and Art (the first two were not my forte), I worked as a darkroom technician, a photographer’s assistant. Later, I travelled to New Zealand, where I found employment first in a graphics studio and then as a biological and medical illustrator. Eventually I returned to the UK to pursue a freelance career.
Freelancing grew into a studio based advertising photography business with commissions from both international and UK clients. For five decades my specialities included still life, food, room-set photography with occasional industrial and editorial commissions.
The transition from analogue to digital photography in 1998 re-ignited the same wonder I felt in that school darkroom. The developer tray was replaced by a keyboard and software, the paper by a glowing screen. It was a new and exciting era of image-making; I fully embraced the possibilities.
Now semi-retired from commercial work, I divide time between the UK and France focusing on creating my own idiosyncratic pieces. The work often explores ecological and social issues, aiming to communicate meaningful messages - reflecting the philosophy of Art for Life’s Sake.
Inspiration arrives in unexpected ways. Often, I see landscapes, faces or scenes in the textures, crumblings, and stains on walls; an interplay of pareidolia* and serendipity. These chance discoveries form the basis of my creative process embodied in the concept The Writing Is On The Wall. I develop and refine these fleeting impressions into narratives, bringing the initial vision fully to life.
Each piece carries a touch of that same magic that first captivated me in the darkroom as a schoolboy.
pareidolia* - the perception of apparently significant patterns or recognisable images in random shapes and lines, commonly, many people see faces and objects in clouds.
FIELD OF FLOWERS Wildflower fields support biodiversity and combat climate change by improving soil health, capturing carbon, and providing habitats for pollinators.