Just before my fifteenth birthday Fred Wright, a family friend and painter & decorator, whilst removing multiple layers of anaglypta wallpaper from our living room and sipping his fifth cup of tea, asked me what I wanted for my birthday.
No idea, I replied.
Why don’t you ask for a camera, then you can come and join us at the camera club.
Why not? I responded without dwelling upon it - and I did, and I fell immediately in love with photography as I watched my first black & white image appear as if by magic in the developing tray at the beginners’ darkroom session at Fred’s camera club.
I was destined, I felt, to become a photographer, and a photographer I became. I graduated from the Polytechnic of Central London (at that time the only degree course in photography in the UK) under the tutelage of Victor Burgin and John Goto. I left England after graduating (and the break-up of my first serious relationship) to work as a photographer with a Greek shipping line - travelling throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America and Alaska. On board I sought solace through doodling and then sketching and then painting. I was offered a job at the Mussavi Arts Center in New York City after exhibiting my artwork there in the mid 1980s, and there I lived for over 30 years.
After ten years in the NYC art scene I took an extended hiatus - studying acupuncture for four years (graduating with a L.Ac and B.Ac in 1996 and a M.Ac in 2002); and theology for two years, being ordained as an Interfaith Minister in 2001.
I married in 1998 and we moved to Stuyvesant Landing in Upstate NY, on the banks of the Hudson River, after the birth of our first daughter, in 2001. Becoming a father prompted a period of introspection and re-prioritizing, resulting in a re-commitment to my creative work. This was further cemented after a near-death experience in 2005 after which both the Inner Light and Personal Panorama series were developed.
We moved to England in 2017, initially temporarily (to spend more time with my ailing mother) but decided to stay, and have lived in Beverley , East Yorkshire, where I went to grammar school as a boy, since that time.
Selected Exhibitions
1977 - Ferens Art Gallery - Hull, England
1978 - Regent Street Gallery - London, England
1979 - Ferens Art Gallery - Hull, England
1979 - Regents Street Gallery - London, England
1980 - Fotografia Academica - Czechoslavakia
1981 - Fotografia Academica - Czechoslavakia
1984 - Mussavi Arts Center - New York City
1984 - Burgess Meinster Gallery - Key West, Florida
1985 - Esta Robinson Gallery - New York City
1985 - Mussavi Arts Center - New York City
1985 - Studio K Gallery - Long Island City
1986 - Mussavi Arts Center - New York City
1986 - Studio K Gallery - Long Island City
1987 - La Guardia gallery - Queens, New York
1987 - Studio K Gallery - Long Island City
1987 - Mussavi Arts Center - New York City
1987 - Queens Community Gallery - Queens, New York
1988 - Long Island City Open - Long Island City
1988 - Mussavi Arts Center - New York City
1989 - Studio K Gallery - Long Island City
1990 - Lincoln Center Gallery - New York City
1990 - Mussavi Arts Center - New York City
1991 - Lincoln Center Gallery - New York City
1991 - Robin Rice Gallery - New York City
1993 - Ublacker Hausl Gallery - Munich, Germany
2000 - Monique Goldstrom Gallery - New York City
2001 - Queens Community Gallery - Queens, New York
2002 - Monique Goldstrom Gallery - New York City
2002 - Monique Goldstrom Gallery - New York City
2003 - Barrett Arts Center - Poughkeepsie NY
2003 - Hudson ArtsWalk - Hudson, New York
2006 - Camaje - New York City
2007 - Sharada Gallery - Hudson, New York
2007 - Stuyvesant RRS - Stuyvesant, New York
2007 - Throckmorton Gallery - New York City
2007 - Hudson ArtsWalk - Hudson, New York
2009 - Ennagon Gallery - New York City
2010 - PhotoCenter Gallery - Troy, New York
2023 - Ferens Art Gallery - Hull, England
Publications
Amateur Photographer Magazine
Photography Year Book (1978)
British Journal of Photography Annual (1981)
Petersen's Photographic Magazine (Sept. 1980)
British Journal of Photography Magazine (23/11/79 & 3/10/80)
The Complete Encyclopaedia of Photography (1980)
Galleries Magazine
Tikkun Magazine
Mussavi Arts Center Catalogue
Long Island City Open Studios Catalogue
New York Times
House & Garden Magazine
Daily News
Arts Magazine
Art in America Magazine
Newsday NY (16/4/84, 18/10/85, 21/3/86, 27/2/87)
ArtSpeak Magazine
Skylines Magazine
Munchner Stadtanzeiger (23/12/92)
Chronogram Magazine (26/3/08)
Awards
Gold Medal - Fotografia Academica, Czechoslavakia
First Prize - Beverley Friary Restoration Competition
First Prize - British Airways Travel Photographer of the Year (Single Image)