Originally from London’s East End, I’ve been living all over Australia since the early 90’s but have settled, well at least for the time being on Melbourne’s Bayside, positioned directly opposite the beach.

My interest in photography was initially triggered by watching my dad spend what seemed like hours setting up his manual film camera, an “Agfa Isolette 2” that he’d purchased in 1954, much to everyone else’s frustration.

If shooting wasn’t enough, my mum also had to endure surrendering her bathroom when he’d bring an old door in from the garage and place it on top of the bath, black out the windows and start laying out his trays, chemicals, enlarger etc etc. All very exciting to me at five years of age, “What’s all this about then?” He was on a mission and I wanted in.

I had to wait another five years before I received my first camera, a “Kodak 255x Instamatic” that I received for Christmas in 1973 at the ripe old age of ten. This saw me through until my first 35mm SLR, a “Pentax P30n”. In 2008 I made the move into digital, initially with a Canon 40d then later I worked my way through the Canon 5D series. However, these days I work exclusively with Hasselblad digital medium format.

I’m primarily self-taught with the assistance of the many photographers I’ve met along the way. In the early years I read heaps of Kodak books, courtesy of a family friend who was a troubleshooter for them at the time. In addition, attending photo exhibitions around the globe not only opened up new horizons for me but also provided oodles of inspiration.

As far as genre goes, it's always been people for me. A brief stint in a commercial studio challenged everything I believe a portrait to be, often poorly posed, over photoshopped with rarely any resemblance to the sitter or their story. So these days I’m far happier trusting my intuition and having the choice of who I shoot, with my priority always given to those who inspire me and or wish to collaborate more and become involved in the creative process.

Regarding style, for me it’s all about authenticity, spontaneity and storytelling, allowing "poses" to occur organically, capturing the essence of a person in a moment of time, whether in the studio, at their home or at an alternative location that resonates with them and free from the terror of perfection.

While I frequently work in colour, I personally connect far more with black and white. To quote Ted Grant “When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes. but when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls.”

Cheers!