Marcel Proust once said that “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes” and never has this been true more than today. With a billion images being created every single day, with social media bringing them to all our fingertips, never has a new, a different, vision been more necessary. Do I think I’m the person to provide it? I certainly try to be.After more than 90 countries (and growing), hundreds of assignments - some good and very successful, some unavoidably less so - many international awards and the incredible good fortune of having worked for the amazingly talented and passionate people over at National Geographic, Lonely Planet, Conde Nast Traveller, GEO and many other, I hope my images bring with them a different, more paced, thoughtful and stylised approach to storytelling.Using my images to tell a story, I hope to do more than just present a beautiful image, say a close-up portrait or an action scene. I hope to sensitise and bring the audience closer to my subjects by bringing them into the image, by asking them to take a breath and look a little closer. I guess you could say, I hope to perhaps make them a part of these myriads of stories I come across. Because I truly believe we - as a species - need this.We need to grow closer, not grow our distance the way modern fast-food, social-media driven image consumption drives us towards. To learn how to live together with knowledge and compassion for peoples both near and far, to be sensitive to cultures and customs not our own but beautiful and worth preserving all the same. I want my images to tell the story of a Turkana woman the same way it tells the story of the Malian wood scavenger or a french farmer because they are all a part of this amazing, beautiful, infuriating overpopulated, largely polluted world of ours and its people.After more than 30 years with a camera, I would venture to call myself an adequate, if peculiar and very opinionated storyteller and educator. Currently based in London, I constantly travel the world - either for myself, through various assignments or running a number of educational workshops - constantly in search for these elusive stories frequently obscured by visual and informational noise. Storytelling is about the people and their stories, not about the photographer, so if I come back from a month in the Amazon with a single image someone will look at and ask to know more, then I feel have been successful, that I have made a real difference in the world. And that, sometimes, is enough!
I frequently get asked what gear I shoot with. Little secret? People say it does not matter, but it does - not massively, but enough. So, for those who want to know, here it is!
I take part in maybe 4-5 competitions a year, not for the awards but for two reasons: to see how my images stack against my fellow professionals and to, hopefully if I win, share my images with them.
I'm here to help - be that contacts, hints and tips, projects and workshops. Or just chat about anything travel or photography. So please, reach out!
