About

Firstly, thank you for visiting my website. It’s much appreciated, and I hope you enjoy the images on here.

I’ve always enjoyed photography, but have only followed it seriously as an art form since about 2005. Way back in the 1980s I graduated in graphic design, but have worked in other fields since then, especially in mental health at residential care homes and day centres. From 2002 to 2004 I facilitated an art group at a day centre, and found it a joyful and fulfilling experience to watch people who had suffered so much discovering their innate creativity. I also rediscovered my own artistic impulses, and found myself responding to my surroundings visually in paint, pastels and photography.

The onset of chronic health problems in 2004 forced me to give up work, and I’ve spent the years since learning to live with the limitations that neuropathic pain can bring. Similarly, I stepped down from several years of peace activism because of its effects on my emotional and physical health. I’ve had periods of anxiety and depression, and came through those by learning self-help skills such as relaxation and mindfulness meditation. The latter is something I practise every day. It helps me to stay calm, to recognise negative thoughts and feelings as merely passing experiences, and to be responsive to the changing colours, sounds and textures in my environment. I think that calmness and beauty of colour in particular are qualities that I try to capture in my photographs, although I wasn’t consciously aware of that at first.

Living in Eastbourne at the foot of the South Downs, is a marvellous opportunity to observe changes in light and weather in this corner of the UK. Up on the downs and cliffs, the most familiar sights never look quite the same, and at times I have used the same composition more than once in my photographs, with only the light and colour being different. Other landscapes I respond to vividly include the Canadian Rockies, which I’ve never forgotten since a holiday there in 2003. In contrast, I also photograph modern architecture, again drawn to the clean lines and simplicity of design. And I love the monuments of British prehistory; standing stones are a wonderfully evocative subject! Finally, I have recently begun photographing animals, which I love just as I did in my childhood. There are examples of all these subjects on this website.

My partner Angie is also an artist and photographer, and has her own website planned. We met in London, but now live in the Old Town area of Eastbourne with our black and white cat Tally. For health reasons I’m not often able to travel far, so I’m very glad that we now live so close to the sea and such beautiful and inspiring countryside.

All my photographs, apart from those of London and Canada, are digital and taken with a Fujifilm Finepix S7000 camera (several years old now). I like digital, which makes it so easy to edit and work on the images from the comfort of my laptop. It’s the most creative part of the process for me.

Again, thank you for browsing my website, and if you have any questions then please feel free to contact me.