Passing on good quality information to others is a passion of mine. Teaching is in my blood, both my parents are teachers and I enjoy telling a good story. I believe these traits flow through into my imagery as I present the viewer with a clear message communicated using simple elements. However, my photographs still hold mystery and intrigue through the medium’s interpretive nature.
I enjoy creating scenes that have a relationship between people and the landscape. I often work with relatively mundane locations and try to make them seem intriguing, however it does help to start with an exotic location. Travel is an important part of my creativity as I find getting out of my comfort zone often provokes unusual visions that I end up chasing down.
My illustrative technique has developed from studying photojournalism and inspired by the engagement that is required from your subject. The need to tell a story is paramount and capturing all the photographic elements is challenging. The fundamentals of a successful photojournalistic image are based on visual impact, how the graphical elements work in a composition, how the lighting enhances the composition, the information about the subject, and human emotion or mood.
I am fascinated with the lead shot in an assignment, as it needs to encapsulate the entire story in one image. I think deep down that became a bit of an obsession, to be able to tell an entire story in one image. The thought of capturing iconic images excites me.
While my images are not hard hitting photojournalism, they do have elements of factual information, however they leave some interpretation to the viewer. For me it’s a mix of decisive moments and fictional story construction.