I first started to get into photography properly just before I went to Truro college to do my National Diploma in photography. I initially wanted to do 4 A levels one of them being photography, but didn't quite get the grades needed to do 2 of the A levels, which lead to the course leader of photography asking me whether I would like to do the ND instead. I chose to do it as I am a very visual person and thought that it would be an interesting subject to study. I learnt about the history of photography, how to process my own film, aperture, shutter speed, ISO and lots of studio and editing techniques.
I got my first digital camera just before I went away to China in 2007 and after using it while I was over there, found that I could using my camera was the best way to document my time there. I didn't want to leave, wishing that I had taken more photos while I was there.
I first started drawing when I was 12 or 13, just doing doodles in notebooks to then go onto sheets of A4. After that I would look at different books and the web for inspiration, my favorite book is the street sketchbook, in which I found the illustrator Guy McKinley who inspired some of my first drawings.
Untitled, Guy McKinley
Through drawing I found photography, I used images as inspiration. I found that I had an interest in the images that I would use, thinking that I could incorporate my drawings into photography making unique images like collage and images with different layers.
When I first started to learn about photography, I was mainly interested in doing portraiture and doing fashion shoots. This changed after I learnt more about film and that I liked being outside more than in a studio and I liked to take pictures of the normal and mundane, but in a different and unique way. I found that landscape images could be slightly abstract and not the normal picture-postcard images.
I have started to get a further interest in landscape photography, through finding out about the Urban explorers or Urbexs and photographers such as Sylvain Margaine.
Saint Vincent's Church, Holland, Forbidden Places, Sylvain Margaine
By finding these photographers and this branch of photographer, I have come to understand that photographer can be used to document things that would otherwise be forgotten or left behind for nature to reclaim. It can also be seen as an art form, creating unique images that provoke thought and feeling with the viewer being able to relate to the subject in the photo. Becoming an Urbex can be a challenge in itself as you have to have a certain ability to get to places that have been abandoned and may not be easily accessible. An example of this is the 'Holy Grail' that is Chernobyl and Pripyat. Pripyat was once a town full of families and people who worked at the nuclear power station in Chernobyl, after the disaster at the plant in 1986 in which the Pripyat and Chernobyl were evacuated, is now mostly deserted with a small amount of people still living there regardless of the dangers of radiation poisoning. Although the threat of radiation is still apparent, it isn't as damaging as it would have been a few years ago. Robert Polidori is one of the many photographers that have been to Chernobyl and Pripyat to document the aftermath of the disaster, his images are thought provoking with a sense of shock about them.
Gymnasium school #5, City of Pripyat, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine, 2001, Robert Polidori
In the future I want to go to Chernobyl to document the aftermath of the disaster myself, so that I can experience how the disaster has affected the people left behind and to see how the buildings have been left behind. I am unsure as to what I want to specialize in, so I will work in different areas so that I can understand my strengths and weaknesses better. I also want to go back to China to expand my portfolio and experience the culture again.
