About Me
I’ve always believed that a picture tells a thousand words, I like to use my imagery to communicate narratives and concepts to the viewer. I’m particularly interested in urban and rural human environments, particularly those in a state of abandonment or those that are overlooked in our day to day lives and how they interact and succumb to nature around them.
I’m particularly passionate about sharing what I know about art and photography in particular, I enjoy helping and explaining things to others and I believe its important to share what you know with others. I’m also interested in interactive online media and its possibilities for artists to show, share and receive critique and discussion about their work without the constraints of a physical location such as an art gallery. The internet is undoubtably the most important communication tool of our age and I think it offers much potential for artists.
As long as I can remember I have always been interested in creating art—drawing in particular. I first became interested in photography at the age of sixteen when I took a photography and graphic design class in 6th form at high school. Something about the balance between the technical nature and the creative intuition of both subjects really inspired me. I find carrying a camera makes me more aware of the world around me, it gives me a medium in which to see and interpret the world and describe how I see it to others.
My initial introduction to photography was shooting 35mm black and white film, as it has been—at least until recently for many others. From this I progressed to shooting colour and then on to discovering the possibilities of digital capture, scanning and the joy of shooting medium format. I sincerely believe that digital imaging, weather it be shooting with a digital camera or scanning film offers possibilities far beyond what was possible with traditional photographic processes although those many hours spend leaning over an enlarger and developer tray have been replaced with many hours of sitting in front of my Mac using Photoshop.
In 2007 I completed my Bachelor of Design at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, majoring in image making. Since graduating I have had works in several group shows. I’ve worked doing freelance design and photography as well as working at a camera store and lab, working in this environment has allowed me to become familiar with a wide range of photographic equipment. I spent December 2008 and January 2009 in Scotland and Europe, a time of year most would avoid travelling to the northern hemisphere in but which can be photographicly very rewarding.
Currently I work with Nikon digital SLR cameras and a Pentax medium format film camera. I still develop my own black and white films though I have found that my colour work is increasingly digital. As of 2007 I’ve stopped doing darkroom printing after seeing the superior results that can be achieved by drum scanning and inkjet printing. For snapshots I generally use my trusty Canon Powershot as its simple to use and offers a good range of manual controls though as is the case with most compact cameras the results are generally only suitable for small prints and the internet.
I offer a wide range of photographic services, including portraiture, architecture and interiors, product, jewellery and 3 dimensional art, automotive and landscape work as well as a number of limited and unlimited edition art prints.
About this site:
This site is made with wordpress, my favourite personal blogging platform. Currently I’m using a theme called Atahualpa as it allows a large amount of control over the layout and style of the site very easily and allows a large enough area for content. While I do have some web design experience I prefer using wordpress for its simplicity and user friendliness. I’m always interested in your feedback about the site, if you have any problems, if anything doesn’t work or look right to you let me know. If it’s a technical issue rather than an aesthetic one please give me details of your browser etc. As always I recommend Safari and Firefox.
As with anything on the internet, don’t just blindly believe everything I—or anyone for that matter say. A dozen articles might tell you a dozen different things about how to do something and they all claim their way is the right way. Doing your own tests are worth a lot more than what you read online, it’ll probably take you a lot less time than trawling through endless articles too and it might only cost you a few dollars worth of film or a few megabytes of hard drive space in exchange for learning something you can use forever.