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BiographyBorn into a working class family in the North East Of England in 1960, the majority of my earliest memories predominate in the form of strong graphic imagery. Obviously the photographer I am now, was learning the art long before I had a camera in my hands. Art and design became my main passion at school, and here I was lucky enough to be introduced to my first ever 35mm camera. A wonderful art teacher of mine would allow a chosen few to take his old Zenith SLR loaded with Ilford black and white 400 ASA film and experiment to our hearts content. Within a very crude make shift school darkroom, the magic of the photographic image became permanently etched into my mind. My first week at art school began with me spending the entire first terms grant money on the camera of my dreams. As the proud owner of a Canon A1, and with the luxury of a state of the art darkroom at Bristol Polytechnic Faculty Of Art And Design, I was truly in heaven. The fact that I had absolutely no money to live on at all seemed pretty irrelevant to me back then, I soon found all manner of evening jobs to put food on the table. From those early and informative times up to the present day, the constant in my life has been the love and appreciation of the images around me. My camera has never been far from my side, and is always a great companion to me with its ability to clarify distant or cloudy memories. My work over the years has been varied and interesting, and I have travelled fairly far and wide. My love of the image is inseparable from my love of travel, and that passion has seen me camping with the Nomads of Tibet, months on-foot through the Nepalese Himalayas, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc etc to name but a few places. Long gone is the darkroom from my world of photography. I have completely embraced the digital revolution and swapped darkroom for Adobe, never once looking back. Consistency in producing an image was always the challenge in a world of contaminated chemicals or temperamental silver halide. I can now replicate all of the darkroom techniques inside Adobe Photoshop (and far more), carry out test prints and make necessary adjustments then fix the final result forever. The future? I have merely touched on the areas in this world that I wish to visit, and have only ever produced several dozens of images that I am truly content with. I will continue to travel, and will continue searching for those elusive magic images. 
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