I am a documentary-ART photographer whose practice is eclectic but centres on stories about the land and places and increasingly my self and my life. I USUALLY tell my tales through small, artisanal hand-made books.

I was born in 1957 (yes, amazing, Sputnik days) in Clifton, Bristol, England, and spent a happy early childhood there.

My father died when I was six and he was 42. It left a mark.

I made my first photographs in 1965 with a hand-me-down Box Brownie beneath the under-construction first Severn Bridge (looking upwards).

I spent seven years in boarding grammar school. That left a mark too (pluses and minuses).

My first degree was sociology, and that opened my eyes hugely and deeply to the real world and how societies and people behave. It left a mark (all positives).

I worked comfortably and complacently in various marketing roles in a large corporate company for 35 years. It left a mark (good and bad, but mainly good).

I left work at 58 and then pottered for a while. I needed purpose.

So I went walking, long walks along the Essex coastline, and because I had always taken photographs, I took a camera and recorded what I saw and noticed. After a few months I looked at my pictures and thought: “This is quite good stuff, maybe I make it a project”. And I did. And I made books.

The work was OK if not remarkable. But it set me on a path to be a really very serious documentary photographer. (Thanks here go to Martin Parr, VII Photo and very many others who nudged and encouraged me on my way.) Workshops, an MA at the London College of Communication and many (too many) books and reading, immersion, obsession, passion followed.

The rest is not quite history. But it soon will be.

CV

Education

  • UAL/London College of Communication Masters MA Photojournalism & Documentary Photography Postgraduate course, October 2022 to December 2023. Course leads: Max Houghton, Edmund Clarke.

  • First class Honours BSc Sociology, University of Southampton UK (1976-80) – which taught me to think about people, identity, cultures and social values, looking all around a subject to truly understand it, and to be inquisitive and enquiring.

Career

35 years with BT, in many guises of marketing and communications. Amongst many other things, this taught me about word-crafting and how to write compelling copy, how to compose and tell stories, and it taught me the disciplines of business management.

exhibitions

  • MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography LCC graduate show Nov 2023: 50:70 project.

  • 'We Also Fight Windmills' show, curated and organised by Ania Ready, at the Oxford University Press, Apr-May 2024, and at Curiously, a studio and not-for-profit art space run by artist Mills Rowe, Berwick-upon-Tweed, and on to other venues and events.

  • WorkShowGrow ‘Trial and Error’ exhibition in the County Court gallery, Kennington, London, July 2024.

  • ‘Landscapes of Identity: An Exhibition on Culture, Identity, and the Natural Environment’, a group exhibition (curated by Andreea Chitan, with Carolyn Mendelsohn, Robert Darch, Benjamin Statham, and Andreea Chitan-Woodier), at Ilkley Manor House, in North Yorkshire, August-Sept 2024.

SIGNIFICANT Photographic courses and workshops

  • 5-day course on Photo-documentary (Spéos, Paris, June 2017).

  • Continuous Professional Development photographic coaching by photo gallery owner, Francesca Genovese (2017-18).

  • Three-day intensive Visual Storytelling Workshop, with VII Photo agency (most of the VII Photo members, including Ed Kashi, Gary Knight, Jocelyn Bain Hogg, Ziyah Gafic, et al, Barcelona, March 2018).

  • Distance learning course in Photojournalism with the New York Institute of Photography (awarded NYIP Certificate in Photojournalism, August 2017-May 2019)

  • Three-day Artist Bookmaking Workshop (Tamsin Green, Photofusion, March 2022).

  • Photographer Mentoring sessions (three hours each) with Sian Davey in Devon and Cheryl Newman in London (June 2022).

Photo: Benjimen Green