I’ve travelled to over 60 countries to date, and in some ways I see myself as helping to record and interpret the planet at this point in it’s history.

I like to experience this world with it’s different cultures and interact with it’s people. I like to eat what the locals eat (within reason) and watch how they work, rest and play. I don’t see my work as just travel photography but as documentary, portraiture and reportage.

Having said all that, I’m doing erotic (for want of a better word) photography. This has been really interesting for me as it gives me total control of the photograph. I’m never in the position on the road to control all the ingredients, but now it’s like creating something from a blank canvas. It also gives me projects for when I’m not travelling.

For those of you that like to know, I’m using my Nikon D3s at the moment.

And inbetween all this, I still run, with massive help from everyone I work with, my publishing companies, Really Good and Soul.

Vision

Very little matters in photography except capturing the essence of the subject. Every photographer wants to do that, but we go about it in different ways. It’s the itch we have to scratch. And when we’ve done that, we just have to do it again and again.

And every photographer wants to say something in their work too. It’s the “photo speaks a 1000 words” thing. In my case I do have things to say in a number of photographs, but I choose not to drone on about them. I prefer to let the viewer find what they want in the pictures, be it fun or sadness. My work can be seen as stand alone pieces, but also as part of a set that seeks to build a picture of a place or moment.

My mission for myself over a period of time has been to loosen up my style. For years I was so controlled and cold. Now I’ve made myself get rougher with the camera. I shoot more freestyle now, and it gives more movement and excitement to my work. I shoot a lot from the hip now, and I’m getting pretty good at it. I like the “looking up” effect that gives me. It’s like a little boy lost angle, that alienation thing. I’m pretty tall so I look at the finished shots from an angle I’m not used to. But not only this. I’ve also trained myself not to be so perfect and to embrace some things that I would have never allowed myself to do before. As long as I get a composition that works for me and it says a little something then I’ll go with it. Again I’ve got pretty good at this now and although I’m still mostly shooting through the viewfinder, I more and more just feel the moment and stick my arm out it harms way. There’s a real joy in life to losing control which, being a controlled person in so much of my life, I’m really loving not being certain what I’m going to end up with sometimes.

Accidents, they happen. Happy ones and fuck ups. Any photographer that tells you otherwise is lying or boring ! This often rears its head while I’m editing my photographs. I’m ready to delete a shot and then something sometimes tells me to take a second look, and I can suddenly realise that I’ve captured something much more interesting than I’d intended. The opposite is also true !

I’ve missed fabulous shots just by looking in the other direction. You can absorbed with looking for something only for it to happen right behind you. The shots I’ve missed torment me for days after, but they’re always going to happen. It’s simply not possible to react to everything fast enough all the time, but being prepared is a good thing and at least increases the odds. And they’ll always be the moments when I’m editing and saying to myself if only I’d moved one step to the left or something. Experience still fucks it up, but I reckon I make more good calls than bad ones, and that’s probably as good as it gets.

Speaking of editing, it’s for me the hardest and most intense part of the process. Deciding what to show and not show is really difficult. It can be a great photo, but what is it saying and does it justify it’s place in a story? I put the photos through a sort of funnel system, gradually editing them down and down until I have what really is important, the essence I was looking for.

How

I don’t agree with photographers that say you need to spend say a couple of months with some obscure nomadic people to get images with feeling. That’s just bollocks.

My way is to be in and out. I want to feel them but also to be alienated from them (however long you’re there for you always will be anyway!) I’m not dissing some truly amazing projects that people have done over the years (although some are totally average) but I’m just saying that for me I need to drop into their world like I’m from outer space, digesting information and doing a compare and contrast to my own world. I want to feel alienated. It’s important and that I can be objective and it’s important to have a feeling and empathy for the situations, people and places. Of course I’m friendly and charming, but I’ll never blend in no matter how much I try, and my vision is much clearer in the first few hours and days than it is after some festering.

A few days to really get to know a city is fine. Often 4 or 5 days. They are long days though. I’ll relentlessly walk from morning to late night. I love shooting at night, the available shades of light and colour casts make things magical. On many occasions, I’ll be stalking a scene or street corner for 30 minutes or much more in order to get my shot. I often find a good backdrop to a shot, but have to hang around for the right person to appear in the photograph. During these shoots I can often forget to eat or drink anything, getting utterly absorbed by my observations.

Technicals

Don’t ever ask me what shutter speed or exposure I shot at. I have no idea. I don’t care either. It’s really not important. It’s the end result only that counts. So if you want a scientist, I’m not your man. If it says what I want it to and I love it then that is frankly what’s important. The camera should be an extension of the person holding it. I understand how my camera is going to react within certain lighting situations. I occasionally switch to manual but I regularly play with the ISO setting and I regularly switch between auto and manual focus. Focus and depth of field is really important for my work.

For those of you that like to know, I use a Nikon D3s. It’s big and heavy, but wonderful, specially at low light conditions. And it feels right in my hands. For this reason I’m a Nikon man, even if they do frustrate the crap out of me at times ! I only use one “do it all” zoom lens when I travel; the flexibility and speed of reaction being more important than changing lenses or carrying two cameras. Purists will groan. I don’t care !

I love digital. Ever since I picked up my first digital camera, I never used film again. I know there’s a certain nostalgia for film again these days, but I’m not sold on it. I want the ability to process each image individually in my “digital darkroom”. It takes a long time to do, but I’m in love with the freedom it gives me.

Portraits

I’m doing less of these now. Not because I don’t enjoy them or are not proud of the ones I’ve done, it’s just time consuming. Stopping a stranger on the street and asking to photograph them either verbally or in sign language is a bit hit or miss. If they haven’t told you to get lost, you get them negotiating a fee half the time, at which point I either stand my ground and refuse to pay, or if it’s going to be particularly good or they really need the money then I’ll give them some (I carry some small bills in an easy to get to pocket so I don’t have to flash my wallet). Then after that, it can be really hard to get them not to bloody smile in every shot. Nice though they are, it doesn’t make the shot most of the time if they’re sat their beaming from ear to ear. I know i have a smiley portrait gallery which i really like, i don’t want it all the time. So it’s time and energy used when there are other things that interest me. I still love shooting humans, but I prefer it to be candid. I like to capture them interacting with their environment without them realising I’m stalking them ! Again, through glass or via reflections are becoming a particular favourite of mine.

Photoshop

There’s certain tasks that you really have to do with any digital photograph in my opinion. The tools I’ll frequently use are levels, curves, satuation, contrast, black and white converter, crop and sharpen. Anything else apart from the odd despecking is rare. These things fine tune a photograph. I don’t seek to change the photo, just present it the best way according to what it’s trying to say.

Humans are made the way we are, so I don’t “beautify” the models in any way. Celebrate imperfection…..because you’re worth it !

Form

What self respecting photographer wouldn’t get turned on by shape, form and pattern. I love it when it’s perfect, and I love it more when it’s imperfect. I love order in chaos, and chaos in order. Old, new, natural or manmade, and combinations of all those. I’m a designer, so graphics and composition are important to me. I love to balance photographs, sometimes in unlikely ways, and I love to break the rules and make something work anyway.

Beauty

Like all of us, I love beautiful things. Sadly though they can make uninteresting photographs, so you won’t see any amazing sunsets from me. Pretty, but pretty dull.

Seeing what isn’t there

I love this. We look through windows constantly. What we see is what we’re trying to see and expecting to see. What we don’t see is the glass or the frame. We know it’s there of course, but we don’t focus on it. The same for railings or reflective surfaces. And why should we be any different? But bung a camera in my hand and any sort of opaque or reflective surface is great. I focus either on the glass, or somewhere between the glass and the object you’d normally see. The grubbier the surface the better, and then we suddenly see what we never do. Dust, grit, cracks, reflections. We see the window. The biggest issue I have of course, is getting out of the way or you’d just see a load of ghostly self portraits ! But I love the atmosphere and confusion of the images. I don’t superimpose any images at all so all the confusion in some of the photographs are as real as you would see them if we focused on the glass. I’m embracing all the things we wouldn’t normally want in a photograph !

What to have

The vital things are a camera (obviously), inquisitiveness and a sense of humour ! I’ve talked about the camera, but the most important equipment is in the photographers head. A sense if nosiness is good for my kind of work. A “I wonder what’s down there” sort of attitude, bearing in mind your own safety sometimes. Wanting to dig a little deeper is something within the nosey amongst us, often never being totally satisfied. Having said that, knowing when to step back is also helpful at times !

Being able to predict things is also good. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I often seem to be able to anticipate some situations before they’re about to happen. Almost like being able to do the maths of snooker and knowing where the balls will end up. It’s helpful as I can dash to a position to take advantage of it. There are times where I’ve helped engineer certain situations too, unbeknown to my subjects !

And oh god do you need a sense of humour. From being confronted in tricky situations, to getting caught shooting someone when you thought you were being discreet, to trying to get your own way or charm someone, sometimes through gritted teeth. But then there’s the many many times I’ve sat for ages chatting and laughing with the locals. It’s just a wonderful thing to do when you can transcend language and cultures to actually laugh with people. It’s the most important quality a human being can have in my opinion, and separates us from amoebas.