About me
Technical
All my fine prints are printed on fibre-based material, mostly Ilford’s Multi-grade matt or Warmtone semi-matt, and toned with sepia or sulphide, selenium and gold for their tone and permanency.
My films of choice are Ilford’s FP4plus or Delta 100.
I work with a variety of cameras including 35mm Olympus OMIs, medium format Agfa folding cameras, Envoy wides, Rolleiflexes, Mamiyaflexes and a Mamiya RB67, in addition to several cameras adapted from 1910-20 Kodaks and various plate cameras, up to 15” x 12”, from around 1900.
Curriculum Vitae
Date of Birth: 30.4.1944
Education / Work
1957 - 1960 Attended Moseley School of Art
1960 - 1965 Studied painting at Birmingham College of Art
1965 - 1966 Worked as an antique restorer in London
1966 - 1968 Hitch-hiked to India. Worked as a volunteer with Tibetan refugees.
1968 - 1969 Trained as a teacher at the University of Wales, Cardiff
1969 - 1973 Taught art at the Highfield school, Letchworth
1973 - 1979 Head of Art at the Meridian School, Royston
1979 - 2004 Lecturer in Art at Oxford College of Further Education
Awards / Projects
1974 - S.L.R. camera magazine, National Award Winner
1979 - School photographic project featured in the British Journal of Photography
1986 - Ran a workshop at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford to coincide with a De Chirico exhibition
1987 - 1988 Worked in a school as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s “Photography across the Curriculum”
1988 - Commissioned to photograph “Street Life” in Venice
1989 - Became chairman of Oxford Photography
1990 Invited to join the Arena Group
Exhibitions
1982 Henley,The Bohum Gallery - paintings
1983 Oxford, The Photographers’ Workshop - paintings and photographs
1985 Oxford, The Ferry Pool Centre - photographs
1986 Radley, Radley College - paintings and photographs
1988 Oxford, Ruskin College - photographs with Paul Kilsby
1988 London, St Pauls School - photographs with Paul Kilsby
1989 Radley, Radley College - photographs
1990 Lincoln, Lincoln College of Art - mixed show of photographs
1990 Basingstoke, The Street Gallery - an Arena show
1991 Wallingford, The Gottlieb Gallery, Carmel College - photographs
1991 London, The Cotten Centre - an Arena show
1991 Croyden, Fairfield Hall - an Arena Show
1992 Bradford, The National Museum of Photography - Part of the exhibition - “North / South”
1992 London, The Barbican Centre - an Arena show
1993 Lincoln College of Art - a landscape exhibition with Fay Godwin, Pete Davies, John Nesbitt, John Blakemore and Mark J Edwards
1994 Poole, The Seldown Gallery, “Sea-sides” with Tony Worobiec
1995 Newbury, The Corn Exchange - still life photographs
1996 Perm, Russia - with Paul Kilsby
1997 Oxford, Oxford Museum - “Museum Pieces” exhibition
1997 Gainsborough, Lincolnshire - photographs
1998 Oxford, The Photographers Workshop- “Working with old cameras”
2000 filmed by Style TV discussing my work with old cameras
2001 Paris, la Chambre Claire - still life photographs
2003 Paris, la Chambre Claire - street photographs
2007 Oxford, St John’s College - Eden Photographs
2008 Eden Project, Cornwall - “Earthly Delights” plant photographs
2009 Stow, Lensky Gallery - Eden and Still Life photographs
2010 Truro, Royal Cornwall Museum - Eden and Museum photographs
2012 Oxford, Art Jericho - Eden, Museum and Still life photographs
2013 Lacock, Fox Talbot Museum - Museum work in exhibition “Shades of Grey”
Personal Statement
Having trained as a painter, I travelled overland to India forty years ago without a camera. During the two years I stayed there, I became increasingly aware that I was constantly framing images in my mind. On my return to England I bought an old SLR camera and there started a lifetime’s passion for photography and the photographic image.
Over the years, I have been influenced by changing situations and opportunities, as well as by the availability of different equipment and materials. Initially, an interest in surrealism, and lunchtimes spent in central Oxford, took me to the street, recording bizarre coincidences and the ambiguous interrelationships between people and their surroundings in an urban setting. Later, a fascination with old, medium format and plate cameras has led me to work increasingly within the context of rural and coastal landscape, and on still life.
Most recently, I have spent 14 months photographing at the Eden Project in Cornwall, recording the pattern and structure of the plant forms there. Many of my subjects are fallen leaves and blossoms which lie unnoticed by visitors to the biomes.
