PHOTOGRAPHERS STATEMENT:

Photography is my passion in that it gives me the wonderful opportunity to selectively freeze life as I see most interesting, in order to relive fleeting moments that pass all to quickly before our eyes in the present moment. My camera is my window to the world from my perspective and they give me the opportunity record my vision as I see fit in my choice of subject and composition. Rarely do I set up a shot and if I do it usually when I have asked someone permission to take a portrait of them in the street. In this case I will aim to capture  the real them in unposed unaffected way.  Generally my interest lies in street photography style of working, particularly humans within there direct environment and how they relate to it and the common traits that they share with other life on this earth.

It is the skill of the chase that I enjoy, preferring not to shoot to many frames, as much like a hunter if the shots are fired and you miss it will scare away the prey. The same can be said about street photography the natural moment is likely to have altered if the subject recognizes your game. Stealth and timing seems to be the key.  

 Still photography intrigues me in its ability to show circumstances but at the same time challenge what we perceive as reality, and because a still image is just at the end of the day the physical elements that are in front of the lens when the button is pressed, it gives us time (the viewer) to deliberate the moment that has been frozen. Thus leading us to look into the deeper meaning of the picture as we relate what it shows comparative to our own experiences in our own particular lives. “Timeless” is a word that goes some way to describe what a photograph (any photograph) maybe like. On the one hand it is full of time in so far as the people, there clothes, and there direct environment at the moment of the exposure are a representation of how we have evolved up to that point from the beginning of time. On the other hand the physical split second of time that the image has frozen, arguably is timeless in its very nature of stillness on the two dimensional page.

The ‘straight photography’ approach of many of the old masters is how I like to work. Using mainly black and white film, my aim is to show as close as humanly possible what it is that I am photographing. This I am realizing is the strength of photography, in its ability to depict visual circumstances in an honest way, and therefore any post enhancement to any of my images will never be anymore than what is achievable in the traditional darkroom, of which I still have and use.

If it is a portrait I am looking for something that cannot be put into words, a sense of peace within, an exceptance of that persons place at the time the picture was taken, an understanding of comman ground between the picture maker and the person being photographed. This in a sense maybe why I am drawn to photograph Nomadic people, in my view they not only have a wonderful sense of freedom of spirit and energy that comes across well in a photograph. They also tend to dress in an individual style that accentuates to me there lack of existing in a materialistic existance, its alot more about survival and practicalities as opposed to esthetics.