For a while now, many months in fact, there has been no 'bio' in the biography section of this website. There are simply a few personal landmarks from my photographic journey that probably mean nothing to anyone but myself, and as time goes by I'm not even sure many of them mean that much to me! As a result I have been grappling with trying to find descriptive terms for my work. Such as what do I want to say about myself in this bio if it's so important to me that I'm wasting mental energy on it? I guess it would seem an important thing to have on any artist's website. Visitors would surely want to know what drives the artist, or perhaps what kind of a photographer they are.
I used to think that my work was about me, in so much as the feelings that the landscape might evoke in me and how I interpret those emotions photographically. I'd project my own emotions on to the landscape, or at least that's what I thought I was doing in hindsight. I've mentioned previously that I'd always had this incredibly strong, spiritual connection to nature, since I was around 7 years old when my Dad took me out on to the North York Moors. I think my previous bio may have mentioned this. But that doesn't quite sum up the forces that are driving me on this journey. Like any artist I don't do this for the money that's for sure! There is so much energy goes into this but I literally haven't been able to put into words why I am doing it or even what kind of photographer I am. I'm not in a creative rut at all, it's just I have been unsure of what it all means. This is because it's a very deep seated drive within me to produce not an image but perhaps a statement. It's not just about nature either. I've come to realise that actually; my work has become something more pertaining to a metaphysical documentation of my experience of the world. In this age we have become detached from nature for sure, even those of us that appreciate the natural world. In my work I try to evoke a sense of mystery. There are things happening that we cannot conceive, even that science can't explain. More than 'nature', there is a source. The source of all things, creation, evolution, unknown forces which I certainly can't explain. My works aims to portray these unknown realms as mysterious space in between. Additionally, the passing of time means so much to us but what does it matter in reality, is time important to this mysterious source of all things? I've come to realise then that my work isn't about me at all, more our place in the world, our existence, abstract concepts of reality, hidden energies and the wonder of it all.
And I'm still not quite sure what to put in my bio!
(Cover image from my series ‘Winter Solitude’.)