About

Currently

I’ve been a photographer since I was a kid but I often forget because I’m easily distracted and get interested in other things. I like making things. Images and physical things. I enjoy the slow process and physicality of painting. Film, alternative processes and old weird cameras are more fun than tapping a button on my phone but I also like using computers and digital images. I have a DSLR and Photoshop for when a pinhole camera would be inappropriate. When I make things I tend to use CAD, laser cutting and 3D printing. I don’t have the patience for the kind of precision that computers deal with easily.

Alongside making I like fixing.

Now-ish

I’ve moved the blog from my old website. That site was mostly my photography portfolio and currently mostly broken. I’m still confused about what I should put where and why I need more than one website.

If you find anything useful here please get in touch.

(Bollard photo: Jawed Ashraf)

Things Done

Photography / Teaching

I am sometimes a photographer and used to be a photography teacher and mentor. As well as doing occasional commercial work, I have exhibited in group shows and also produced small editions of photographic books. I was a regular Associate Lecturer for the School of Theatre at Wimbledon College of Art teaching one or two days a week for over 10 years. This mainly involved working with BA level students on computer based design and visualization as well as making short films and animations. Along with conceptual and design help, I taught Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, After Effects and 3D software.

I also set up and ran Starting Digital Photography course and Street Photography workshops for Photofusion in London.

Group Exhibitions - Photography

Contemporary London Street Photography - as part of the London Festival of Photography - King’s Cross Station, London, 1 June - 15 August 2012.
Onto the Streets - Photofusion, London (July 2006) touring to Thessaloniki, Greece (Dec. 2006), Dubrovnik and Rijeka, Croatia (Feb / Mar 2007), Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia (15-25 March 2007).
London Independent Photography - London (2002, 2003 and 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011)
Snapping Little Britain - Orleans House Gallery, Richmond (March / April 2006)
Arrested Art - London (May and December 2002).

Books

My photography has featured in a small handful of books and magazines including one picture in Street Photography Now by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, published by Thames & Hudson.

I co-authored and designed a book on making simple mechanisms and automata. This was published in 1998, reprinted a number of times and still available: Cabaret Mechanical Movement. I’m currently working on a follow-up book.

Television

I directed Machinations, a series of four short films for Channel 4 about making things move in entertaining ways. The series was first broadcast in 1995. more…

Video

The Other Movies page lists some of the videos I’ve made. I have also shot and edited a number of short drama, promotional and documentary videos. more…

I’ve been a freelance something since 1992. Before that I worked for Cabaret Mechanical Theatre mostly fixing things in Covent Garden and I’m still involved with the wonderful world of automata. Before CMT I was a Software Engineer, which partly explains how I’ve also produced things like an iPhone app.

Qualifications

I left school as soon possible so went from a good CSE in Technical Drawing :-) to an MA Screenwriting and Screen Research (London College of Printing, now LCC-UAL, 1996)