Art can be many things. Sometimes it can make a political or social point, as with the Hahn/Cock sculpture in Trafalgar Square in central London. The sculpture is by German artist Katharina Fritsch. The giant blue cock is pointing out the predominantly male statues in Trafalgar Square. However, I think it’s not just Trafalgar Square that has this issue.

What art has the potential to do is to become a social commentary on the world around us. While my photography may not be as making such a blatant point Fritsch’s cock, in its own, sometimes subtle way, it’s a commentary of the world I see around me.

Whether it’s architecture, landscape or street photography, it’s a snapshot of what I see and is very much rooted in where I am, who and what I see and when. I have found that I have started merging the architecture and street photography a little as I have started including people in some of the photography. For many years, I shied away from taking photos of people as I had grown tired of being told off for taking a photo of someone.

However, I am starting to find ways to include people. People can often give context, but including people also mean that the architectural shots are less austere or harsh. It doesn’t mean I have started including people in all of my photos – it depends on the photo. It just means I don’t shy away from it.

The social and political statements I am making in my photos are perhaps more subtle as they reveal everyday life. The feedback I really found useful and insightful from the exhibition I was in last November was when non-photographers who visited the exhibition were able to find their own stories and narratives in my photography and were relating to my images in their own way. Speaking with them allowed me to see my photographs in a different light and gave the new insight.

I am perhaps starting to see my photography as a narrative – the narrative of the world I see around me. 

Walking city streets, graffiti is part of the urban landscape. It’s sometimes hard to miss. As a predominantly urban photographer, my focus is often focused on the buildings and urban environment around me. However, I have become increasingly interested in photographing graffiti.

Why? What draws me to graffiti? Some find it the scourge of modern urban life. I don’t find this is the case. I have been historic palaces – like Dover Castle or even Eltham Palace – where there has been graffiti. Although this graffiti are often carvings on the walls rather than using a spray can.

Graffiti can be quite elaborate and creative, but it can also be rather dull and ugly. The built environment often lends itself rather well as a canvas for graffiti. The architecture of cities tells one story, but I don’t find it’s the full story of human experience. Graffiti challenges societal norms. It’s often seen as a nuisance by local government, and is often painted over – only to be replaced by new graffiti.

While graffiti can be an alternative conversation, I find there is a human need to say ‘I was here’. Whether this reflects the transient nature of life, and particularly of larger cities or a human desire for some semblance of permanence is open for debate. I would imagine it’s a bit of both.

What graffiti can reflect is a human voice and experience that is otherwise often shut out of mainstream society. It can be subversive. However, it can also become ‘trendy’ as it’s often seen as alternative and challenging the norm.

Whatever graffiti represents, it’s not likely to go away anytime soon, and I’m sure I’ll be photographing it for a while. 

My photography has been changing for much of this year. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to be all that different from the photos I have been taking.  Other times, it can be more reflective. My photography has allowed me to see things differently, and this is still the case.

I haven’t always found it easy to articulate where my photography is going, and in a way, I am enjoying the journey. It has made me more reflective, and perhaps see things around me even more deeply.

Being mindful has played an important role in this process. Although I haven’t blogged in a while, I have been taking photos, and lots of them. Trying to make sense of them isn’t always easy. Perhaps they are still too fresh. What I am enjoying, though, is seeing the results, and the places my photography is taking me. Perhaps I will never entirely make sense of my photography, apart from reflecting life unto itself.

Becoming more mindful has shown things to me that I perhaps would have missed previously. This doesn’t mean I see everything, or would want to photography everything. What it means is I am pausing more and letting life unravel in front me. Increasingly, I am not seeking perfection or the perfect image. What I am wanting to capture is a world that is around me – in it’s busy-ness as well as it’s quiet(er) moments.

The image above is of Old Street Station. The straight lines and the curves play against each other. I could have left the pedestrians out of the image, but the image would have been a bit soulless without them. I may have missed the image if I hadn’t turned around, paused, had a look and put the camera to my eye. 

A week ago, I published my first book with photos I took on my iPhone since August 2012. I hadn’t expected that my first book would be images from my iPhone as I have a few ideas of other books I thought I would publish. So, why images from my iPhone?

I hadn’t expected to take that many images on my iPhone. However, I over the last number of months, I was proved wrong. The images were capturing passing moments before they slipped through my fingers – that’s why the book is called In Passing.

The number of self publishing companies has grown exponentially over the last few years, which makes publishing your own book more accessible. However, it wasn’t easy to choose the photos to include in book. Being able to look at your own work objectively is nearly impossible – which is probably why I have struggled to publish a book previously. I did find that this book seemed to organise itself. Once I had the title, then the photos fell into place.

Would I publish another book? Definitely! When will this happen? I have not idea! I am sure that I will still struggle to figure out the theme of the book and what images to include. However, I won’t let this deter me. Publishing my first book was well worth it!

Catching the moment is, in many ways, fundamental for photographers. It would be waiting for the right lighting conditions, the right alignment, the right pose ….

A photographer could wait for the moment to happen, or be quick enough to capture it before it slips away, never to be seen again. It’s what photographer do, really. While there is equipment that can counter this – like setting up lighting or staging an event – time is still there. However much the photographer tries to control the situation, every moment is different – even if it’s slightly.

Recently, I have inherited a number of old film cameras. The latest was a film SLR – whose light meter I managed to get working again. I was getting used to using it by talking some street photography in Central London.

I managed to just capture moments before they quickly disappeared and the photo changed. Street photography isn’t always the easiest thing to time, but if done well – or if you’re lucky enough to capture the moment – it results are incredible.

I get a buzz when I manage to capture a moment before it’s gone – and have a certain frustration if I don’t manage to get it. But that’s the fun. It’s a bit like cat and mouse. You capture some, and you also lose some. 

The Shard is one of the more recent additions to the London skyline. Towering over London Bridge train station, it stretches into the sky and points to the stars above.

A friend and I went up to the viewing gallery at top of the Shard, and it was well worth going up. I’m not one for heights, and was a little apprehensive. However, the views over London were amazing, to say the least.

The weather was not bad with sunshine and some cloud – we were fortunate as it hailed not long after we came down. To see the city from such a height was such an experience, and my fear of heights managed not to bother me particularly. I think I was far too busy looking at the view, and taking photos of it. It was amazing how far you could see.

To see the London and it’s iconic architecture was amazing. 

While my photography is going through a period of change and morphing, one constant I find myself drawn to is photographing my surroundings as they are. This may not be the case in every instance when I push the shutter, how life presents itself, or what it presents to me, demands that it not be changed.

One element that I am finding my photographic journey is taking me is the underlying force behind life, and where humanity fits within this. I was recently walking through Covent Garden recently, and someone had put a fizzy drink bottle on an iron railing in front of one of the buildings. It was a random act, in a way. I doubt the person who had done this had hadn’t realised they had set up a photograph for me. It doesn’t matter, really. The stage had been set.

Seeing the ordinary and making it interesting is something I have always been attracted to. How I have seen this has changed of the years, and it is certainly changing at the moment. Perhaps something more subtle is starting to speak to me.

Like most artists, my creativity comes in spurts. After a period of quiet earlier in the year, the last month or so have been much more creative. I am starting to build up some film I need to scan and am also looking forward to getting 3 rolls of film I shot recently developed.

I am not sure where my photography will take me, and quite frankly, I don’t care. I am really enjoying the journey.

My transitioning photographic eye is still on its journey. Along the way, the film to be scanned is beginning to pile up. In between my photographic escapades with my more favoured cameras, my smart phone and digital point and shoot are allowing me to capture moments I would have never imagined I would be snapping before I had these devices.

Technology is a funny thing. With the advent of digital photography, and the ever more portable and integrated technology, my photography has changed. I find myself taking more snapshots of life around me. It’s my photographic equivalent to doodling. It has allowed me to explore my photography in ways I probably wouldn’t have previously.

However, when I have time to set aside for photography, I am drawn to more traditional (analogue) photography. Partly, it’s what I grew up with and is the most familiar. Mostly, it’s the medium I find my creativity is best conveyed in.

There is a difference between digital and analogue. This difference may seem nuanced, but they are two very different technologies. The look and feel of an image is affected by this. 


I find myself adapting what I do with both technologies. Digital allows me to doodle freely and without worrying about whether I have enough film and the cost. Analogue allows me to ponder and take time to frame what I see. On the more subtle level, I find analogue captures my often textured shots in a more organic way.

While I am allowing the shift, and growth, in my photography to happen, I am enjoying and encouraging the snapshots – the doodles. Without them, my progress would be very different. 

The sun can be scarce in London, particularly during the winter months. However, today was what seemed to be a rare day full of sunshine. While I didn’t really feel like taking photos when I got up, I did make my way towards Crystal Palace Park. 

There are many places in London I can easily go back and photograph many times and at any of the year. It’s one of the few places, however, that I can go and photography when I am in a period of contemplation with my photography – like I am now. 

With winter, the park is in slumber, and I find that I am very attracted to it. The long shadows play well with the dull colours and sleeping nature. I didn’t wander very far today and walked through the part with the dinosaurs. 

Before I went to the park, and even on route, I felt tired and not quite in the mood. However, I did have a sense that I needed to get this out of my system, even if my photos didn’t turn out. I am not sure whether they have or not – I was shooting on film, and the photo above is one I took last winter. 

After having a cup of tea in the café and read part of the Sunday paper, I felt a lot better. I am sure the photos I took en route to the café turned out fine, but the mere act of just doing my photography and letting it be without any pretention or pretext was great, and felt wonderful. I just looked and was in the moment. 

I hope the photos show this, even a little bit. 

With a new year, there is a sense of new possibilities and starting afresh. I am also finding my photography shifting, perhaps maturing. At the very least, it feels like it’s changing, and the changes seem to be in their infancy. 

My photography seems to be adding an otherness to it. I have always been drawn to taking abstract images, but they sometimes seem to have a bit more dream-like aspect to them. 

While I have always found inspiration in the everyday, I am finding a new dimension of the everyday. Perhaps I am subconsciously questioning more the reality and the world around me. Perhaps I am more in tune with what I am seeing. Perhaps the seemingly solid, well, isn’t so firm. 

With the passing of time, perhaps I am becoming more reflective and this is beginning to show in my images. Winter often brings out the more reflective side of me, and I have had to give my photography some space and not rush my creativity. I am still taking photos, but my subconscious seems to be thinking and I seem to be capturing moments currently rather than series or movements. 

I seem to be in between, and perhaps my images are reflecting this. Something is happening and my subconscious seems to be toiling away, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I am enjoying letting it fester away, and for me to explore. But the most important thing is not rush it, but let it let it reveal itself.