ABSTRACT PORTFOLIOS

Sometimes a picture is more than the sum of its parts.  I completed this project exclusively on Large Format film from 2007 to 2012 as I explored how abstract ideas could transform my image making away from the purely representational. This alchemical process transforms the mundane into the magical. 

Port Mulgrave in Yorkshire became synonymous with making abstract art in my mind.  Visiting repeatedly from 2011 to 2014, I explored many ideas including the crossover between photography, music and painting and used the all the available objects on hand - fishing huts, boats, the beach - as mere materials for making art. The subject was never the object being photographed.  This was a seminal project for me and was completed exclusively on 5x4 Large Format Velvia film. It has heavily influenced my approach to photography since that time. 

One of my biggest motivations in photography is to communicate and to celebrate the beauty I find in nature. This portfolio seeks to present aspects of the landscape that my eyes and vision see as wonderful. 

Autumn is a transient symphony of colour, a few weeks when the landscape transforms. This portfolio was mostly completed in the Autumn of 2024, a year of extraordinary red berries in the UK. The themes of water, berries, autumn leaves and the forest canopy sound throughout the sequence. It is partly organised, like a movement in many traditional symphonies, in sonata form.It was photographed entirely using modern technical cameras with digital backs. 

The photographic frame creates arbitrary boundaries that defines the edge of what a viewer can see. That inner world is a construct of the photographer. If the viewer were to be transplanted to the same time and space as the photographer, they would not necessarily see that same world. The construction of these inner worlds is purely in the imagination of the artist. In this portfolio I explore the construction of inner worlds in all sorts of contexts. In particular the portfolio explores the technique of dynamic balance in composition - finding ways of making the eye want to stay inside and dance around the frame.   

This portfolio is based on examining and exploring the effects of time as various processes like rust and decay play out. The project is exclusively completed  on my digital technical cameras (Cambo Actus with digital backs) using technical camera lenses. 

A developing portfolio exploring the intersection between worlds for example river and sea, man made objects and nature. 

Industrial archaeology is part of our heritage and the relics of human activity such as mining, manufacturing and old farm buildings or machinery make for interesting objects to photograph. However to move beyond the mere representational, one needs to stimulate questions in mind of the viewer. What were they for and how were they used? How is nature reclaiming or interacting with them now? Who used them and what was their life like? This developing portfolio explores some of these ideas.

There is no good English word for this abstract technique that is suitably elastic. The basic idea is making pictures of objects where the object takes on (represents) another idea (symbol) in the imagination of the viewer or photographer. The most common examples include Personification or Anthropomorphism - giving inanimate objects human characteristics or form. Zoomorphism applies the same idea to animals.  However symbols could be other concepts like religious artefacts (e.g. a cross), abstract shapes like circles or even abstract ideas like 'liberty'.  This portfolio plays with these ideas.    

This is a collection of images that explore inner landscapes of snow and ice. From intricate patterns of ice to the delicate beauty of snow. The project is still evolving.