Greenwich is one of my favourite parts of London. With its naval and royal history, along with the Georgian architecture, it has an old world charm that, not only draws many tourists, but lends itself quite well to photography. 

I find myself drawn back to Greenwich more times than I can count, and see new angles and pictures each time I go. Even familiar haunts, like the University or the market, can be cast in new light, depending on the time of day and the time of year. 

A few years ago, I happened to be walking in Greenwich Park in December, with my camera. I was struck how the sun was playing with the bare trees, and casting long winter shadows. 

I couldn’t resist taking photos. This time, however, I took colour photos rather than black and white, even with the long shadows. The reason? The clear, blue sky and the green grass contrasted nicely with each other, and with the shadows. To saturate the images even more, I used FujiFilm Velvia 50 with a polarizer filter. 

There are a few photos I am very happy with. One of them was stairs leading up a hill. The shadows are more subtle than the other photos, but still there, and the trees in the background give a hint of nature. 

The photo hints at something, leaving much to the imagination. The stairs imply some effort, and a certain amount of mobility, to climb. They could have led anywhere, or nowhere. 

The journey could be short, or infinite. Where would the stairs take me? Does it matter? I wonder what I would find along the way …

The above image is available to buy as a print. For more information, please click here.

Gaudí. The name is, at least in English, is synonymous with being over the top and garish. It was not until I visited Barcelona a few years ago that I not only fell in love with Gaudí’s work, but also really began to appreciate it. 

Antoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí i Cornet was an architect who lived in Barcelona and who worked during the Modernisme (Art Nouveau) period. However, he became famous for his unique and highly individualistic designs.

Gaudí studied nature's angles and curves and incorporated them into his designs and mosaics. This is what drew me to Gaudí when I saw his work when I saw it in Barcelona. The blatant copying and incorporating of the natural world gave his work an organic feel and texture. 

I found myself drawn to taking mostly colour images of Gaudí’s work – on my trusted FujiFilm Velvia. 

The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, commonly known as the Sagrada Família, is probably the most famous of Gaudí’s. The large Roman Catholic Church in central Barcelona is hard to miss. It is an impressive building, even though it’s still being built. 

While the Sagrada Família a remarkable building, another building really appealed to me. The Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera (Catalan for 'The Quarry'), is a gem of a building. Along with the Sagrada Família, the building exemplifies Gaudí’s appreciation of the natural world. 

I could hardly take my camera away from my eye. The reason? Both internally and externally, La Pedrera is a beautiful showcase of Gaudí’s work. 

The building holds a treat for the visitor – a treat that is apparent from street level. On the roof, sits its chimneys. But these chimneys are like not ordinary chimneys - not with Gaudí being the architect. 

Somehow, there couldn’t be simply one, or even two chimneys. There were more than I could count, and they weren’t all the same. Like the natural world, nothing was really exactly the same. There was variance and difference. However, this variance and difference sat comfortably with each other and gives the visitor a sense of harmony. 

The chimneys presented me with some wonderful photo opportunities. The mosaics and beige and white deco contrasted nicely with the bright blue February sky. 

Gaudí’s work demands you look at it in ways that most other artists or architects don’t. It has pushed the boundaries in ways that no had done before, or even since. It may be garish; it may be over the top; it may be decadent. But it’s earthy - it taps into something quite fundamental. 

Love. A simple word, but one that can mean very different things. A word which describes something very profound, but can be seen as threatening at the same time. Much has been written, spoken, theorised and philosophised about love. 

Valentine’s Day is an opportunity for lovers to celebrate the love they have for each other; a love that can be very affirming, deep, tender and precious; a love based on acceptance and trust. 

However, love can also be subversive, and challenge the shifting social norms and mores. Love between different social classes, races and religions as well homosexual love can be reviled or even suppressed, for instance. 

I came across some graffiti recently near Brick Lane, East London a few months ago. It was something I could have easily missed, and am glad I didn’t. 

The graffiti is very simple, but profound. A girl and a boy holding hands, in a doorway; the doorway was on a side street. With a certain shyness, the lovers steal a moment together. While not flaunting their love, they aren’t entirely out of view either. 

The viewer was left to interpret the story. Was it of two young lovers wanting a more private moment together, away from the ridicule of peers and the knowing eyes of elders? Were they trying to hide something from their friends, family, and society at large? 

The image for me encapsulates the conflicting nature of love. On one hand, something that is profound and beautiful; on the other, revealing humanity’s deep unease of something that is rather difficult to control. I find the image both affirming and subversive. 

The graffiti art works as a black & white photo rather than colour. The black & white of the graffiti and the surrounding buildings bring out the subtleties of the image. I took the photo on Ilford Delta 400. 

The above image is available to buy as a print. For more information, please click here.

Light is one of the basic elements of life, and is something that is fundamental to photography. 

Light and shadows is something I am drawn to as a photography, and find myself exploring how the world presents itself in this way. What is seen, or even not seen, have been played with, if not manipulated, by photography. The photographer can have quite a lot of control over the lighting of a photo, and as a result, can affect the feel of an image. 

However, a photographer can also be at the mercy of light. Not all shots can be set up and controlled in a studio – although, images can easily be manipulated in photo editing programmes like Photoshop. 

I do enjoy working with available light, and let it present itself to me. Waiting for a friend at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, I was taking photos to pass the time. The sun was playing hide and seek between the clouds, and I was drawn to the shadows it was making on the walls of a building near the Cathedral. 

I managed to get a one photo before my batteries on my point and shoot camera died, which only really happens when you need them most! The impromptu shot really captured the moment before the sun decided to hide behind the cloud again. I am very happy with the rather dark, if not ghostly, result. 

The image I managed to get seemed quite simple and primal in some ways. The light coming through the tree branches cast shadows look like blood veins. I managed to capture something that was beneath the surface of life. 

While the image is in colour, the look and feel of it is very black & white. Colour can capture the nature of light, but black & white lends itself to light in a way that colour can’t. The very essence of black & white is about light and shadows. 

Light and shadows is very fundamental. Much of our experience is about the varying shades of light and dark. This is something I am very drawn to exploring in photography. Even my colour photos often have a fundamentally black & white quality to them. 

This is something that I never really noticed until a friend pointed it out to me. No matter whether I am taken in images in colour or black & white, I see things in light and shadows. Without light and shadows, photography would be very different. 

Light and shadows can have a very stark element to it, but I also enjoy the greyness of it. Much of life isn’t that stark, and is much more fluid than we think. The playful sun I experienced at St Paul’s reminds me of that. The fluidness of the light created different qualities, and greyness, when it appeared and disappeared. No two moments were the same.