Personally, I don’t take holidays; I go on trips. My idea of relaxing is taking a trip that isn’t commissioned. I’ll work just as hard, but without that nagging pressure of fulfilling a commission. Now that’s what I call a holiday.
I pride myself in being an aficionado of the British seaside. Throughout my career, I have visited and worked in many of the famous British resorts, from Great Yarmouth to Largs.
Fashion pictures show people looking glamorous. Travel pictures show a place looking at its best, nothing to do with the reality. In the cookery pages, the food always looks amazing, right? Most of the pictures we consume are propaganda.
As we travel around Britain, I am convinced most of us cannot really appreciate what we are seeing. We take too much for granted, because it is all so familiar.
By default, I am a travel photographer. I work on a combination of commissions and personal projects that take me around the world.
For those aspiring to make a living from travel photography, it’s a sad fact that the boring shots are the shots that are going to make you money.
I would urge everyone to start looking at the world in a different way. Spend some time looking at everyday objects, at their design, their shape, their individual characteristics. Think ahead and imagine their significance.
Choosing sepia is all to do with trying to make the image look romantic and idealistic. It’s sort of a soft version of propaganda.
Sepia in particular tends to make everything look a bit romantic and almost sentimental, hence the fact that it remains such a popular choice for wedding photographs.
My black-and-white work is more of a celebration, and the color work became more of a critique of society.
You can easily take photographs at a wedding – no one would question it. But funerals are different.