Photographic Beginnings . . .
My journey in photography began when I was only about 7 years old. My Dad was a keen amateur photographer who had done some semi-professional portraiture in the 1950’s from a rented studio above a local shop. He had also developed and printed his own black and white films for many years, including for clients.
At home we had an old Ensign Ful-view Model II camera, a very basic 120 roll film camera, that belonged to my Mum. and dated from around 1950. This had one shutter speed and a fixed aperture but it introduced me to taking my own photographs without the need for any technical knowledge. Using this camera was my first venture into black and white shooting, something which still remains a passion several decades on! My Dad developed the films and showed me contact printing of the 2¼” square negatives in our blacked out bathroom.
A very early attempt at a “landscape” image with the Ensign Ful-view (early 1970’s) from a contact print.
Whitby Abbey, Yorkshire
When I was around 9, I received my very own first new camera as a Christmas present - a Polaroid instant camera, again a black and white model (there’s a theme here!). This let my Dad “off the hook” temporarily in developing and printing my photographic efforts, if only until I reached my mid teens!
A late 1970’s Polaroid image
Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd, North Wales
I remained keen on taking photos throughout my early teens, although my Dad’s enthusiasm for portraiture was never passed on to me. On many an occasion I have had friends complain about me waiting for people to move out of the way before I make an image.
When I reached the age of 16, I bought my very first 35mm film SLR. I had saved up the money from a summer job after taking my O’ Levels (GCSEs). With my hard-earned cash, some guidance from my Dad, and a friend of his who ran a local camera store, I purchased a fully manual Ricoh KR5. To this day, I am grateful to have started my “proper” journey in photography with a fully manual camera. It taught me how to get to grips with the “exposure triangle”, manual focusing and depth of field. I was also very grateful for the recommendation to purchase the Ricoh as, despite being very limited in features, it felt much more “modern” (for the early 1980’s) when all my friends were using either Russian (Zenit) or East German (Praktica) SLRs which were very heavy, unreliable and somewhat agricultural, by comparison.
Once I had my SLR, my Dad’s skills were needed once again to teach me how to develop my own black and white films and to print them myself - this time in my blacked out bedroom! From this point on, my real passion for black and white images started and has continued until the present day.
In my early 20’s, I graduated with a degree in Chemistry which has supported my interest in photographic processing. I enjoy the whole image making process and like to have control of everything from framing the image, assessing focus and exposure through to making the final print. I do all my own processing and now mix most of my own developers at home, enjoying experimenting with a wide variety of processing methods and materials.
Whilst I now shoot with a wide variety of film cameras and a digital SLR, I still feel that monochrome images made with traditional methods have a unique quality that surpass those made using digital processes. Since making my Analogue Lockdown series, I have become increasingly less interested in digital shooting with its never-ending obsession with higher resolution, sharpness and its relentless, and expensive, gear upgrade cycle. Some of my favourite film cameras range from 25 to almost 70 years old and produce images just as good today as when they were new. I often find high resolution digital images lacking in character and far too clinical. I am greatly encouraged by the recent resurgence of interest in film photography and, as long as it’s available, I will continue to shoot film, mainly for my black and white work, and print in the traditional darkroom.