I was born in north-eastern England, kicked out of school at 16 after flunking everything but English - my sole written qualification is my driver's licence - and entered journalism at 18. That was in 1966. I've worked, either on staff or as a freelance, for newspapers, magazines and websites in Canada, the U.S., Britain and Australia. I left the Toronto Star in 2008 after 23 years on staff and went out on my own.
I moved to the States in 1973, living and working in New York and Philadelphia. In 1982, I headed to Toronto, where I've lived ever since. I'm a Canadian citizen; married with three cats and a collection of model buses.
I've traveled widely, on every continent but Antarctica, and got into serious photography during a stint as a travel writer at the Star. Digital cameras have allowed me to hone my skills.
I work as simply as possible: one camera, one lens, no lights. Though I don't aspire to their standards of excellence, my role models are Henri Cartier-Bresson, for his unerring eye and fast reactions, and John Deakin, for his merciless technique as a portrait photographer. Like him, I don't believe the camera should be the subject's friend. Truth comes out of an adversarial relationship.
I'm also a great admirer of Andrew Stawicki, a hugely talented former Star photographer (superb with faces) and co-founder of PhotoSensitive, "a non-profit collective. . . determined to explore how photography can contribute to social justice. . . to change the world one photograph at a time." I was inspired to work as much as possible in black-and-white by PhotoSensitive's belief that monochrome "forces viewers to concentrate on the image rather than the photograph." I was invited to be a part of PhotoSensitive's recent 2011 Fuel of Life Project. B/W isn't always the best option, of course, so I'll happily shoot in colour if I have to.
I was the subject of a ridiculously flattering profile in the September, 2009, issue of North East Life magazine.
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