I use photography as a way of communicating with people. I’ve always been quite a strongly introverted person, much more comfortable blending into the background and being a ‘fly on the wall’ in social situations.
So to have the ability to connect with people and find common understanding through photography has been incredibly rewarding.
I also enjoy being able to show people a different perspective on a scene, enabling them to pay attention to something that they may otherwise walk past or miss.
Photography is something that is really immersive and it is something that I find incredibly relaxing and requiring full engagement - which is something that for me is immensely satisfying.
Again, over time I’ve found that the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. I think it’s even more than a practice - it’s like an inherent drive or compulsion to want to continue to explore, find, document and photograph the world around me.
I think that my style has evolved over time to be more carefully considered in terms of my composition, while also retaining an aspect of underlying playfulness and mystique.
Can you walk us through your creative process? How do you approach a new project or concept?
In terms of my general approach to photography, I am an image collector. The vast majority of my photos occur organically, very much by happenstance, usually on the way to a different destination. People often comment that my photography gives them a sense of déjà vu and longing, even when they know they’ve never been to the places in the images. However there is something very familiar, something intangible that can be related to. It is this deeper connection with the viewer that I strive to achieve through my photography.
For me, I feel like I am creating not only memories for myself in the images that are being made but also possibly memories for other too. Fundamentally I want people to have an emotional connection with my work. I want them to think about the work and keep coming back to it, to revisit and experience and re-imagine it.
The scenes that I choose to document are clearly ordinary life, commonplace and mundane. However it is the approach to these scenes - the human presence - despite an abject lack of a person, the personality of objects within, the tangible details and the importance of documenting scenes that tend to disappear over time - that for me combine to create the images that are so essential to share.
What process do you go through for a scene to be captured and become a finished image? What is the most important thing to you in that process?
I feel that there are a number of key qualities that need to combine to take a scene from an arrangement of physical space (with or without people) and translate it into a photograph.
In terms of the qualities, there are different aspects to this. Of course there is the actual content in terms of the background and the specific subject itself. I also consider not only what is in the frame, but also what is not in the frame. I want the viewer to want to think about what might have happened before the photo, or what will happen after the photo. Or even what is happening on either side of what you can see in the frame. This ambiguity can give the viewer some pause for thought and more ownership over their interpretation of the photograph.
The lighting of the subject also conveys a mood and a feeling. I very much tend to prefer photographing in dull or overcast light, or subdued light too. Sometimes at night. A scene at night obviously looks and feels very different to the same thing in the daytime. Bright sunshine and heavy shadows has a very different feeling to overcast light or fog.
I also feel that the use of film as a photography medium for me is often an important aspect in the process of creating. It enables me to be more grounded when I’m photographing and the whole process from start to finish is slowed right down - which just adds to the enjoyment and sense of presence.
I use a number of analog cameras, but my two favorites are my 1965 Rolleiflex and my Mamiya 7. Both of these use medium format film, with the Rolleiflex making square images and the Mamiya making images that are 6x7. At the moment, I almost always use color film - and I like to try and get things right in camera, on the film, with as little editing as possible to produce the final result.
What role does location and environment play in your photography? Do you prefer studio work, or do you find more inspiration shooting on location?
I much prefer location photography. I enjoy the challenges and the myriad of unknown factors that you have to deal with each time when working out on location. I find that creativity is unlocked in the process of having to work with a given scene.
Part of the joy of creating a photograph is having obstacles and hurdles to overcome along the way. Whether that means a long distance to travel, dealing with strangers, speaking a foreign language or being able to access somewhere that is incredibly difficult - for me each of these adds to the process of the photograph.
Many of my images have interesting stories behind them, and often they involve an element of serendipity.
Which photographers or artists (from any discipline) have influenced your work the most?
I enjoy the work of photographers including Todd Hido, Gregory Crewdson, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Lynne Cohen, Joel Sternfeld and Trent Parke.
One of the key things that does influence my work is my love of music - very much 80s and 90s. I am a fan of various genres and am always listening to something in the background through most of my day.
I also enjoy get inspiration from painters and some movies too.
