Expressionist photography, shaped by movement, emotion and the unexpected.
Through the expressionist photography approaches of layer blending, long exposure, expired film and ICM (Intentional Camera Movement), I’m exploring ways of making photographs that feel rather than simply describe. I love the freedom of not always knowing exactly where an image is going. Sometimes the most interesting photographs come from letting go of control and seeing what happens.
My influences run the gamut of twentieth-century modern art from Fauvism, through Expressionism and Surrealism, to Pop Art. There are also key photographers who first showed me the possibilities of recording light beyond the literal; Ted Leeming and Morag Paterson, Chris Friel Valda Bailey and Doug Chinnery.
I’m drawn to softness, movement, abstraction and atmosphere. I like images that leave a little room for imagination — where the viewer might recognise something familiar, but also find their own story within it.
Being part of Find Your Voice has encouraged me to think more deeply about what I want my photography to say and, perhaps more importantly, why I make images beyond the literal in the first place. I’m still discovering that, and I think that is part of the joy.
My photographic journey is also beginning to move beyond the individual image. I’m currently collaborating with a local poet, who is studying for his MA, as we explore the possibility of bringing photography and poetry together in a joint exhibition. I’ve also been invited to exhibit at Walking Antiques Gallery when the gallery is ready, which is an exciting next step for my work.
The working title ‘Unstill Image’ is a remark not just about a sense of movement in some of my images, but also about not quite knowing where an image is heading, and that sense of discovery is one of the things I love most about expressionist photography.
Thank you for taking the time to look around. I hope you find something here that makes you pause for a moment.
Publications
On-Line Magazines
- On Landscape Issue 318 End frame: Nuevo Laredo, Mexico 1996, by Alex Webb. December 2024
- 35MMC: Always the Sun – In Admiration of the Selenium Cell Compact Camera. August 2020
- On Landscape Issue 33: Basic Training at North Sands. March 2020
- 35MMC: 5 Frames on Skiddaw. April 2019
- 35MMC: Back to the Future with the Fujica ST-901. November 2018
- 35MMC: One For All or One for None? June 2018
- 35MMC: An SP and DC in NY. March 2018
- On Landscape Issue 143: 4×4 Portfolio. August 2017
- 35MMC: Spirit of ’76. September 2017
- Edge of Humanity Magazine: Mosques of Istanbul. February 2015
- Plastic Free Hartlepool: There’s No Away – Environmental Artist Diane Watson’s Exhibition at Palace Arts, Redcar
Books
Landscape Photographer of the Year Collection 7
Exhibitions
- Connected 2018: Patchings Art Centre
- Connected 2017: Patchings Art Centre
- Connected 2016: Patchings Art Centre
- Connected 2014: Patchings Art Centre
- All Washed Up (with environmental artist Diane Watson: Hartlepool Central Library)
- Landscape Photographer of the Year 2013: The National Theatre
