My work ranges from landscapes and the traces of human occupation within them to still life, flowers, and more abstract studies of form, light and spatial relationships. Whether working outdoors or in the studio, I am interested in how a subject reveals itself through sustained attention rather than through spectacle.
In the landscape, I look at how settlements, farms, waterways and industry sit within landforms shaped over much longer periods of time. Growing up in Wiltshire on the edge of Salisbury Plain, and later in California’s Santa Clara Valley between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range, gave me an early awareness of how human structures exist within a wider landscape. Since then, I have worked in places where this relationship is especially visible, including the Kennet and Avon Canal, the valleys of South Wales, and the Cambridgeshire Fenland.
My still-life and flower photographs are concerned with presence, impermanence, rhythm and the physical character of things. I am drawn to the way objects and natural forms occupy space, catch light, and acquire meaning through their relationship with one another. The work often develops slowly, through repeated looking, adjustment and refinement, until the final image feels less like an illustration of an idea than the visual form the experience itself has taken.
I work with both film and digital cameras, including large format, choosing the process according to the needs of the image. I work slowly, spending time understanding a place or subject before photographing it. Composition comes from the internal structure of what is before me rather than from formal rules. My aim is simply to describe what I see as truthfully as I can.