I now live in Sussex, and have been involved in photography since I was in primary school in Yorkshire, where I grew up. I originally used black and white because I could afford it, and also easily process my own photographs. I went on to explore the use of colour, but returned to my black and white roots in recent years as I feel it gives me more scope for creativity by concentrating the attention on the shapes and forms without the distraction of colour.

I started with box cameras, before moving up to 35mm. This made it easy to produce colour slides for projection, and I started using slide film when Ferrania produced a slide film that could be bought in a reel to load my own cassettes and made a home processing kit available. This brought the cost down to what I could afford as a student (Kodachrome at the time cost about £1 per slide in today’s money). When I started working I moved to Kodachrome as I could afford it.

Kodak discontinued Kodachrome, and about the same time it was suggested that I should try medium format (roll) film. This gave a much larger negative which meant higher quality, and I returned to black and white. One thing leads to another as they say, and a conversation with a dealer in Bath when I popped in for some more film lead to a suggestion that I should try large format. After thinking about it overnight, I went back and bought my first large format camera.

I now mainly use large format cameras, which use individual sheets of film in various sizes. I use 5″x4″, 5″x7″ and 10″x8″ film, but prefer the ratio of 5×7 to the squarer 5×4/10×8 proportions. This gives me the image quality that I prize, as well as allowing the use of what are called “camera movements” which give me additional control over perspective and focus. This type of camera is slow to use, which suits my considered style of photography.

I was influenced by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, whose images I love, and who both used this type of camera.

I try to use my camera to show to others things that I find interesting, that might otherwise be overlooked.

You’ll find here some of my photographs. There’s usually a brief description of what, where and why – and in some cases, how.