I left school at 15 with a head full of dreams and somehow became a Marine Engineering Mechanic. Soon after that I packed my kit-bag and went to sea. While travelling the world I started taking pictures, mainly to remember where I'd been but also as a hobby. Eventually I became hooked on this expensive and unfathomable hobby, so after a lot of deliberation in 1983 I went back to school and in 1984 I became a qualified photographer - embarking on a long career working within commercial photography.
Unfortunately, running around taking pictures for your employer does take its toll, because at some stage you stop taking pictures for yourself - and it happened to me and I lost my 'mo-jo' for many years. If you talk to any long-term full-time photographer they'll all say the same thing - that even though you enjoy your job, it just becomes a job. And that's where I found myself for a long while, but a couple of years ago I started picking up a camera again. I wanted to re-connect to my job, my artistry and my skills - so I started taking pictures for myself again. First using digital, and then going back to using film, chemicals and a darkroom.
“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.”
After working freelance for around 15 years, in 2023 I stopped working full-time and alternated between travelling for a few months then coming home and working like crazy for a few months. I knew that it wouldn't last - and it didn't - so at the start of 2025 I'd had enough and decided to fully retire - after 42 years of photography. Since then I've started to go to bed later, get up even later and also travel...
This website is about my photography. You'll never see examples of my work photography, but you will see my own pictures. And now that I've started travelling, quite soon you'll also be able to see some of my travel pictures.
PHOTOGRAPHY
“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” – Ansel Adams
