About

Brief biography

After many years at university, including postgraduate work and film school, I started professional life as an academic, working for the University of Maryland, USA and the University of West of England, UK.

For as long as I can remember I had an interest in photography, first with a Zenit SLR, followed by a Fujica ST605, then a Nikon FE2 with two lenses! But for many years it was very much a hobby.

Creating engaging and relevant visual imagery took on a far greater importance when I started working as a film director.

A break in filming on one of my first documentaries

For 30+ years I worked around the world, writing and directing numerous films including TV documentaries, music videos, commercial productions and non fiction and drama-based commissioned work. Many of these films won awards at film festivals in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Cannes and elsewhere.

The Covid pandemic made it difficult or even impossible to continue with filmmaking so I invested in a Canon DSLR, and then the Nikon high resolution, mirrorless system - and a high viz vest to ‘legitimize’ my presence on London’s streets during ‘lockdown’ - and went out in search of great images.

Right from the start I was drawn to black and white photography because it’s a step away from reality, more abstract and more likely to be embraced as an image in itself, rather than a ‘picture of something’.

Also, during this period, I started encountering some difficulties with ‘normal’ walking and manual dexterity, and was subsequently diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. When the post pandemic world returned to normal I was experiencing a ‘new normal’ in which I felt more comfortable working alone, photographing with my Nikon, than I would at the helm of a film crew with all the responsibilities and pressures that involves. I took a wobbly but deeply satisfying step from cinematography to photography.