Where are you from/based now?
Born in Manchester, England. Raised in Auckland, New Zealand. Currently based in Melbourne, Australia.
What is your background in Photography? What keeps you interested?
I didn’t pick up a camera until I was about 19, it was a Polaroid, I enjoyed taking photos of my friends. I put that camera down after about 3 weeks, left photography for maybe 3 years until I bought myself a shitty cannon point and shoot for a trip to Europe. I put that down after about 3 months. It wasn’t until about 2009 that I first started taking photography seriously. When I say seriously I mean I bought a Minolta SRT101 and learnt how to develop my own film, read books on ‘how to take a photo’ and started researching ‘the great photographers’. A few months later I ditched film and purchased a Nikon D40X. But it wasn’t until 2012 that I bought myself a Nikon D7000 for a yearlong trip around India, this was first time that I was happy with the photos I was taking. I think this was because I had a year to practice and had great inspiration on a daily basis. In 2013 my friend Laz introduced me to medium format, I’ve never looked back.
What keeps me interested? I like the rush of finding a good shooting opportunity, I like travelling with a purpose, I like leaving the house with a purpose. If I have a camera with me the most boring situation can become interesting.
What equipment do you use?
Mamiya RZ67, Fuji GA645, Nikon F5, Minolta SRT101 and a Nikon D7000 (used in that order)
What do you look for when you are out shooting? What draws you to a project?
Projects draw me to shooting, they give me a goal to work towards; a focus. When I take a shot, instantly I know what project that shot is going into. The project can be really broad for example, ‘Melbourne Street’, I guess this has something to do with my anal retentive personality and my constant need to organise. But with any project I’m always looking for shots that capture something non ordinary, or beautiful, or funny, or compositionally sound or all of the above.
Is there a particular photographer, site, set of images or a photo book that you keep coming back to for inspiration?
Books – My favourite of all time is Robert Frank’s – The Americans, I love the roughness, the imperfection and his desire (50,000 photos for the whole project or something similar). Followed by Larry Clark’s – Tulsa. I love the realism of this; misguided youth, the hedonism and the bordem. I love Martin Parr also, his retrospective sits on my bookshelf at home, I guess he appeals to my Northern English routes, I can see my parents in his photos. Plus his ability make the banal so damn funny. I really like Missy Prince’s photos, her ability to capture modern day America, yet making the photos look so old worldly.
Websites/Magazines – Flickr, Tumblr, British Journal of Photography, Skeltor, Route Collective, Paper Sea, The Adventure Handbook.
Are you working on a project at the moment?
Like I said before every shot I take goes into one of my projects. My current projects are Australia, called Only Wise Men Fish Here, Melbourne Street and just recently Melbourne’s pubs and bars (the interiors not the people).
Are you exhibiting at the moment? Do you have any plans to exhibit more in the near future.
I would love to if someone would give me the chance…hint hint.
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