I first started taking photos when I was about 6. I was given my moms old kodak 126 cartridge camera. From what I remember, I wanted to see what was going on inside. In the process I started to expose the film. Needless to say the experiment ended in tears.

Over the years that followed I continued to take photos here and there. Much of the pictures were just the usual the happy snaps that one takes. It was only on starting a foundation course that I started to take a more active interest in photography. With access to a darkroom I was finally able to get stuck into the processing aspects involved in photography.

During the early weeks of my degree I was able to attend some workshops run by Justin Quinell. It is through these workshops that I was introduced to pinhole photography. Justin showed us that the world of photography had so many avenues explore. The key was to be inquisitive. Rather than rely on shop bought camera we were challenged to try and design and build our own cameras. A result of this is that in your eye most objects start to look like they can be turned into cameras. Without meaning to you start to quickly calculate the possibilities and the difficulties.

But not only was the question of what can be turned into camera raised. There was also; ‘what happens to it as you take the photograph’? And beyond that there questions involving what you do during processing were also put forth. The whole process of taking a photograph did not have to be defined by a linear procedure of A follows B follows C process.

Over the three years of my degree I continued to explore and develop my own cameras. These were large format, multi aperture devices. I wanted to build cameras that offered both an extended view of time as well as multiple perspectives. I focused on a singular ‘moment’, the exposure time of the photograph. Depending on light conditions those moments lasted anything from seconds to hours.

The resultant photographs presented an inclusive event, a multiple view point of a period of time where each ‘frame’ was non discreet. The information seen was shared by all of them, but with different weightings. Each frame bore witness to the moment in a different way. Some saw too much (over exposed), others did’t see anything at all (underexposed).

I felt that in the way that my multi aperture cameras bore witness to an event was closer to the human experience than the single, split second shot of the 35mm SLR camera. Although each frame told a unique story, they all shared a common thread, the thread of the moment, the event that they had experienced together

After finishing my degree I continued to design and build my own cameras. More often than not they had multiple apertures.

Over the last few years I have been working on taking portraits. To create my photographs, with a ‘regular’ camera I generate source images. These images are printed and used to create a montage of various aspects of the sitter. It is this montage that I photograph with my multi aperture cameras and so create the final image.

Then end results can be said to echo the works of Cezanne as well as that of the cubists who, both in terms of space and time, were interested in trying to capture the truth of perception.

As you explore my site you will find that I am not solely interested in creating photographs. I build camera obscuras which follow on from the same principles that I use in my cameras. I also have started to create works that are more socially or politically conscious.

After finishing my degree I started to divide my time between South Africa and the UK. I finally settled down in South Africa. My time here has shown me that if you are of the mind to, it is really important to try and prod people through the work that you create. Thus some of my work goes beyond the just trying to record and document the experience of seeing. Some of the works I have developed are commentaries on society, in particular South African Society. In creating these works I have found that generally people have only a vague notion of the biases and prejudices that they hold. It is only when presented with the truth of these that they become aware of how wrong they are.