Portfolio
I picked up an SLR camera in 1977 and shot a roll of black and white film. I was shown how to take a light reading and focus it. The rest was down to me. I took a photo of the canal, near my home in Crosskeys.
A few days later, Mr Watson, my photography tutor at six form college showed me how to process the film. Seeing the processed film unroll off of the spiral was a magical moment in my life. I went on to make a print, and remembered staying up most of that night, looking at my first ever print! I still get the same buzz, thirty six years on. The process is still the same!
My parents gave me a Praktica LTL3 for my eighteenth birthday and a Bronica SQ, for my twenty first. It was a great experience taking the new shinny camera out of the box.
Most of my portfolio is shot on black and white film, although some of the colour work is digital. I'm asked over and over again, what do I prefer - digital or film? The answer is, the image content is paramount. It is down to individual preference and style of photography. I come from the 'old school', where I love using film. I enjoy the craft, the time it takes and the feeling in the image, which I believe can be captured on film. I think too many photographers constantly look at the back of their cameras to see if the picture looks ok! I prefer to enjoy that process away from the event, opting to look at the results in the darkroom. So my answer to the question, will always be film!
People photography, I believe, is a relationship between the person with the camera, and the subject. It may be a brief encounter, or possibly a long period of time, shooting a story. In both cases, there is a high level of trust between both. I enjoy the fact that I use photography as an excuse, to drop in to other people's lives. The camera is just a recording tool of my experience!
I use a variety of equipment. Probably the camera I use most is a Fuji 6x9cm range finder camera. I also use a very old Hasselblad 500CM - both film cameras. On the digital side, I use a Nikon D700. All cameras are fitted with wide angle lenses. I must say though, I much prefer film!
The days in the late 70s/early 80s, working as an industrial photographer certainly gave me a strong technical grounding to my image making. But studying on the Documentary Photography course at Newport School of Art, allowed me to practice the craft of capturing every day events.
I've been lucky to have pictures published in numerous magazines, newspapers, book publications and exhibited extensively. That is the end product of hard work; but what a reward!
You wil see that much of my work has, and is photographed in my native home, the south Wales valleys. It is my favourite place to photograph, especially when I shot pictures during the 1980s, at the beginning of my career as a documentary photographer.
This website is always being updated. I will always chase the perfect image, but never capture it! Photography is a job, but more importantly, a passion.
A few days later, Mr Watson, my photography tutor at six form college showed me how to process the film. Seeing the processed film unroll off of the spiral was a magical moment in my life. I went on to make a print, and remembered staying up most of that night, looking at my first ever print! I still get the same buzz, thirty six years on. The process is still the same!
My parents gave me a Praktica LTL3 for my eighteenth birthday and a Bronica SQ, for my twenty first. It was a great experience taking the new shinny camera out of the box.
Most of my portfolio is shot on black and white film, although some of the colour work is digital. I'm asked over and over again, what do I prefer - digital or film? The answer is, the image content is paramount. It is down to individual preference and style of photography. I come from the 'old school', where I love using film. I enjoy the craft, the time it takes and the feeling in the image, which I believe can be captured on film. I think too many photographers constantly look at the back of their cameras to see if the picture looks ok! I prefer to enjoy that process away from the event, opting to look at the results in the darkroom. So my answer to the question, will always be film!
People photography, I believe, is a relationship between the person with the camera, and the subject. It may be a brief encounter, or possibly a long period of time, shooting a story. In both cases, there is a high level of trust between both. I enjoy the fact that I use photography as an excuse, to drop in to other people's lives. The camera is just a recording tool of my experience!
I use a variety of equipment. Probably the camera I use most is a Fuji 6x9cm range finder camera. I also use a very old Hasselblad 500CM - both film cameras. On the digital side, I use a Nikon D700. All cameras are fitted with wide angle lenses. I must say though, I much prefer film!
The days in the late 70s/early 80s, working as an industrial photographer certainly gave me a strong technical grounding to my image making. But studying on the Documentary Photography course at Newport School of Art, allowed me to practice the craft of capturing every day events.
I've been lucky to have pictures published in numerous magazines, newspapers, book publications and exhibited extensively. That is the end product of hard work; but what a reward!
You wil see that much of my work has, and is photographed in my native home, the south Wales valleys. It is my favourite place to photograph, especially when I shot pictures during the 1980s, at the beginning of my career as a documentary photographer.
This website is always being updated. I will always chase the perfect image, but never capture it! Photography is a job, but more importantly, a passion.
