You know when something is in your blood? You know when you just get drawn to something like some mystical power constantly pulling you back? Thats what happens to me with a camera.
THIS IS ME!
Still about the same height just with less tattoos
How can one small object change the world so much?
“A camera is an optical instrument that captures a visual memory.” Ian Gilbert
Simply put its one of the most basic and oldest mechanical objects that has changed very little over hundreds of years. It simply lets what it see’s be captured for ever.
The magic comes however not from the Camera but from the guide who is holding it. It is to me like a musical instrument of the visual world with the ability to freeze time so generations who are not even walking this earth yet can view us as we are right now.
Hold that thought for a moment. Its a history maker. It allows us to capture emotion, size, colour, expression, feeling, happiness , sadness, the list is endless, but from that moment the shutter is pressed, it is frozen for life for everyone to view, comment ,remember, partake and discuss. Teleporting the past into the future.
When I put it like that is sounds as if it’s a device from a futuristic world or something from the realm of a dark science fiction novel. But everyone of us has this amazing device, lots of us more than one, from phones computers webcams even security cameras. So much so they are taken for granted the power they hold. They allow us to view and capture our own history. From birthdays, the standing in front of the door going back to school days, the family meal out, the funny position the dog was sleeping and we capture it all.
Why do we take some images that are mundane to so many? because to us they are our world. Grab your phone and take 5 scrolls through your pictures and I can guarantee without you even knowing you will smile at them. The memories they trigger, the tastes the smells the mood of the day, it will all come back to you instantly like some strange euphoric rush transports you to that place for a moment and you …… remember.
MY FIRST PICTURES MAY NOT HAVE BEEN VERY FLATTERING
This idea has gripped me since I can remember, the fascination with not only the technical side of images and cameras but how light can change a mood, how the colour of that light can physically make you feel warm or cold, the perspective that these memories are viewed from, and when you combine all these factors together they are the ingredients of a well tuned recipe, like the power and expression of an orchestra the end product will be so memorable.
I am the conductor of that orchestra, My camera is my baton and I harness all the other factors in to the lens to create the symphony of memories that will stay on this world forever.
I feel my job is not to win loads of awards, not to charge extortionate prices but to allow everyone to have there own orchestra that creates their own amazing memories without having high pricing, hidden costs and being held to ransom with your own memories for the entire contents of your back account. As many studios do.
My mission in life is for everyone to be able to afford to capture there own story that just cannot be put in to words, to create and compose your own personal symphony’s because fundamentally its so vitally important that we remember for us and our family’s that are not even born yet…