Personal

Born and currently living in the UK, I lived for many years in South America, and now nowhere feels completely like home.

With a strong vein of Latin culture running right through me, I'm an unlikely sort of quiet salsa-maniac.
Trained in art and education, I have worked with screen-printing but mostly photography.

Professionally my life is sales and marketing, travelling to many parts of our planet to work with customers. Without them, a lot of these images would not exist.

In my travels, wherever I may be, my existential world is an intimate and exclusive place, with me at its centre and a perimeter located at the end of my line of sight. As I move forward, new opportunities to photograph my world emerge.

The Images

This selection of photographs has been taken over a period of nearly 40 years, the earliest dating back to F.A. Cup Final Day 1968 and the most recent to last month.

As you see, they make up an eclectic range of subjects overlaid with a variety of treatments from untouched documentary shots through to heavily manipulated images

Commentary

A few footnotes about the images and the internal process:

• I am fascinated and moved by the cycle that objects go through from being totally indispensable to totally redundant. Their everyday wear and tear changes them. This patina tells a story.
• I am specially interested in railways and steam locomotives in particular
• While I despair of the effects of man's hand on the planet, I find myself drawn to his achievements. Not only the monumental or dramatic, but also the humble manifestations and achievements of anonymous lives.
• If my images are successful, they will say something to you, strike a chord. Some may be less successful, but nevertheless make you curious as to their story. Please let me know which pictures need their story to enrich them.
• For me, the process of taking a photograph is a non-verbal chain of decisions and actions.
  • The first step is becoming aware that there is an image to be captured.
  • The second step is committing to take the picture.
  • The third step is identifying the hot spot from which to take the picture, i.e. the angle / framing / composition process.
  • The fourth step is feeling the moment to press the shutter
• Then comes the vortex of selection and rejection, where expectation confronts execution.
• To manipulate an image with a computer, or to watch the magic of the image emerge in the developer tray, is still a process puffed up with vanity and torn to shreds by the excoriation of self-doubt.
• While the processing varies widely, almost all of these images share in common the fact that they are composed full frame and are uncropped.

Inspiration and Influence

Some of the photographs that I most wish I had taken myself have been taken by Cartier Bresson, Walker Evans, Bill Brandt and William Gedney.

For railroad photography my paragons are O Winston Link and colin t gifford.

I also respect and admire the photographs of Bernd and Hiller Becher and David Plowden. Their lives have been a lifelong race against the grim reaper of modernity, capturing the dignity and beauty of disappearing artefacts and worlds. In many ways I try to do the same. Outside the realm of photography there are others whose work has inspired me - Edward Hopper, Richard Estes and Gerd Winner.

Technical

I don't consider myself a photographer but rather someone who uses a camera to capture the images that present themselves before me. Nevertheless as my cameras have served me well, I have a great deal of affection for them.

When it comes to processing images, I find the random modifications and distortions that the processes bring with them (be they optical, chemical or digital) add a kind of patina that in most cases enriches the image. The earliest image on this site was taken with a Halina Pet and there was a gradual progression through several SLRs: a Zenith and a Praktica, then 3 Nikkormats.

Over the years my preference has changed to easily portable, instantly ready cameras which have included a Pentax PC35, a Canon Sure Shot and an Olympus Stylus Epic. Most of these have died as a result of falling from different heights onto unyielding concrete. Since the arrival of digital I've used a Nikon Coolpix 3100 and currently a Canon A700.

Scanning of film to digital has all been done with a Nikon Coolscan IV. All digital processing has been done with Adobe Photoshop with assistance from Perspective Pilot and PT Lens. The stitched panoramas have all been prepared with either the fantastic Autostitch or Panorama Factory.