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.