| faq What inspired you to become a photographer? Personal reasons…my secret desire to see and experience more of the world through my own eyes and record it after getting an ‘all clear’ from cancer. I took a sabbatical from advertising management to travel to parts of the world I had dreamt of as a child; India, Africa, Nepal, Australia, New Zealand. I bought a 35mm film camera to record these travels and on my return I received praise and support from friends, art directors and photographers looking at my work. Spurred on I put my first solo exhibition together which was shown at the Royal Geographical Society in London. As a result of this I was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society…my photographic career started! With the help of my camera I get to places and meet people I wouldn’t have met if I stayed with my desk in advertising. You have such a wide variety of themes behind your photographs, what’s the story behind that? My client work is varied and still needs to be varied in the current economic climate. From variation I’ve learned numerous skills in terms of what to look for and how to deal with people and situations. My personal work of landscapes is the one line of work that has a similar creative thread running through it all. From all of your shoots, what’s been the most fun? The most fun and challenging project was the North Pole project in the High Canadian Arctic and Arctic Ocean. To have had the opportunity to travel to, experience and photograph one of the remotest landscapes of the world was truly amazing. Which are you most proud of? My portrait project for Thrive, a British Horticultural Therapy charity. I was commissioned to photograph Thrive clients, (mentally challenged and disabled gardeners), within their garden projects around the UK from South London to the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. These portraits were published in a book and exhibition that has travelled around the UK from London to the Scottish Parliament. The photographs have helped raise awareness and funding for the charity. How many years have you been a professional photographer? 10 years. What would you say your “signature” is? Photographs of remote locations that are simple and vivid in composition. Joanna Pitman, photographic critic of The Times in London said of my work that it has a, “strong graphic sense taking a genuine intuitive delight in the ambiguity of visual form.” Do you try to portray a message with your images, if so what? For client/corporate work I have to portray the messages that the client want and to tie in with the overall message of the company! For my personal work it’s the marvel of this blue ball that we live on – the good the bad and the ugly. It’s more a desire to continue the conservationist role that photography has had embedded in it since it began; for example William Henry Jackson and his work to preserve the American West, it was his photography with the painter Thomas Moran that persuaded Washington, D.C. to create Yellowstone National Park, to David Plowden as he describes his photography being, “one step in front of the wrecking ball.” What’s the background story on your shoots in the Arctic/ the balloons with whisky? Arctic Simply being in the right place at the right time…I was introduced to a Polar Explorer who started telling me about his forthcoming expedition on the Arctic Ocean. He pulled out a map of the Arctic Ocean and began pointing out the route. He paused and looked up at me and said, “You’re a photographer…do you want to come?” This simple question began a period of intense training, sponsorship fundraising, a trip and experience of a lifetime, international media exposure, an exhibition at Getty Images in London, and further photographic work! Balloons With Whisky I could go on about how I was inspired to do this and that, but to be very honest, it came from bumping into Muir Moffatt, a Scottish Hot Air Balloonist, that I recognized at drinks reception in London. I introduced myself and hearing that he was planning on ‘flying round distilleries all over Scotland in a balloon’ with some other renowned hot air balloon pilots from Europe, this sounded more than fun. I put forward the idea of taking pictures of the event and it was accepted. It allowed me to cover many favorite bases; whisky, travelling, photography, flying in a hot air balloon, and seeing more of Scotland. Sometimes when you have an idea and you feel strong enough about it…put yourself forward, you never what might come out of it! Who are some of the artists in the O2 concert shots? - Wayne Coyne, Flaming Lips, (man in bubble above crowd) - Moby - James Blunt - Rufus Wainwright - Gaz Coombes, Supergrass - Tom Chaplin, Keane - Peter Hook, New Order - and of course…Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry, The Who! Are the images on your site just from having fun as well, not necessarily from a job? Yes a combination of client/corporate work and commissions to personal projects that I’d like people to know about, see and for me to eventually be doing full time. What is the main camera you use? For client work it’s my digital Nikon D700 as images are wanted before you’ve shot them! For my personal and fine art work it’s the ‘Blads’…my medium format Hasselblad 503CW and my 35mm Hasselblad Xpan – the panoramic images. What’s your favorite lens? Sometimes it simply has to be the one you have with you in the moment! If given a choice it’s my Xpan 45mm…a wonderful piece of glass. |