Photography
My photography
I use photography to show something about where I’ve been or people whom I’ve met. As well as trying to see the beauty in a scene or situation, I’m also trying to convey ideas and feelings. My photography is about me and what I do, who I meet and where I go. All my photography tries to be contemporary and creative. I’m resistant to being fitted in to a taxonomy by categorisation such as “travel” or “conceptual” or “nature”. All image-making is political simply by the act of selection and hence exclusion but I am not campaigning for any particular point of view, except to try to see the positives and to live life to the full.
I use 645, 35mm and DX formats plus a handy little digital compact that shoots RAW files. I’ve experimented with non-lens photography - do ask!
I first worked in a monochrome/silver wet darkroom at age 7, helping my Father with scientific prints; I’ve used colour negative materials since age 21 and digital since 2005. I use Photoshop (Adobe) and Photopaint (Corel).
Sunflowers in bloom in a field near the Route Napoléon in the Alpes-de-Haut-Provence. Against my expectation (based on popular rumour) the heads had not all turned to face the sun.
Marine chains stored on the quay at Portpatrick harbour, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. I enjoy and respect the power and raw physicality of the linked iron. Six bins store chains of different gauges, the product of human labour in mining, smelting and forging processes. The eroded surfaces witness the history of the trusty chains in and around the harbour.
Photos exploring the textures of landscape and buildings around Wasdale Head in the Western Lake District. Wasdale Head (85 m.) is overlooked by some of the highest peaks: Kirk Fell (802 m.), Great Gable (899 m.) and Scafell Pike (977 m.).
Colourful and poignant memorial to the tragedy of the HIV/Aids pandemic, which took so many people in the Eighties and Nineties, many of them my closest friends and fondest playmates. I liked the panel with the motto “For those we dare not name” which encapsulates the ethic of gay promiscuity before HIV/Aids. Most of my friends requested that mourners wear white or colourful clothes for their funerals. Several times I played out one last time a deceased’s favourite HiNRG music and gay anthems like “I am what I am”. The diversity of styles and the colours of the Quilt community art project reflect that mentality of life lived to the max then snatched by disease.
More photos: Smell the flowers while you can... UK AIDS Memorial Quilt at Tate Modern
