What is your home city?

Who Are You?

Although I was work in Yorkshire (UK), I grew up in tiny seaside mining village in the North East of England called Blackhall. I never thought I’d ever visit NYC, let alone live here! Exploring, photography and travel came at the same time for me.

I’m an English born photographer and I split my time between the NYC, London and Zurich. I’ve been ‘exploring’ (and know that’s what I was doing) for the last 17 years!

What is a memory attached to one of the images shared?

I could say this image changed my life, I really liked this self portrait on the Chrysler building, but I felt like this beautiful Art Deco building deserved more than a LBD, so I planned a second visit a month later.

After flying back to the US, I took a second self portrait, this time in a floor length striped dress as the sun set behind me. There’s so much more to the second image, it was the only floor length dress that I owned because I needed it for a beautify pageant I entered for a photography project, the dress hides an injury I got two days earlier while in tunnels under NYC, the was pushing me round as I try to stand on the eagle only able to feel and bend one leg….etc.

This second visit and the injury lead to me moving to NYC. I love the irony that this is now my most well known image, but it’s the one I felt wasn’t good enough!

What’s in your bag?

The bag itself will either be the original @Loweprobags flipside in black, or the Photo Sport BP if I want to take camping equipment too. I shoot @Nikonusa, I have a D850 and a Z7ii, usually when I explore I try to not take too much glass as it gets quite weighty, but I always have my 35mm and my 10-20mm minimum. For a tripod I’m currently using an old @sliktripods Sprint, super light weight and compact!

Did photography lead you to exploring or vice versa?

Why do you explore?

In an odd way they found each other. I spent much of my childhood playing and camping in an old abandoned quarry. My friend and I would climb the cliffs, explore the buildings and in the summer we’d move in for a week or two, just us and our tents. I didn’t realize I was exploring. I’d always been creative, but followed a more academic route in school, but I knew it wasn’t right for me. When my grandfather passed away my parents, brother and I got his old camera, from that point on I knew I’d found the right thing for me. Before I knew it the two had merged, and I’d found a global community of like minded people.

I started exploring for the usual selfish reasons, I enjoyed the excitement, and loved the creative process. Experiencing these unseen places that are right on our doorsteps is great. But it changed a little …. As a student I worked at a bar on weekends, and the regulars would pay attention as to when I took off a day or two, the next time they see me, they would quiz me and want to know everything. I realized that other people want to experience these places too, but it’s often not possible for them to go themselves; fear of heights, claustrophobia, fear of consequences or they might be physically unable to do so, but they still wished to live vicariously through me and my images. So although I still love the creative process and find it incredibly exciting, I get more from sharing my work, experiences and these locations with others (always many years after the fact though).