Wheelerdealer : online photographic print gallery

Human / Nature

Growing up in rural Buckinghamshire (UK), on the edge of small towns, the beechwoods and fields of the Chiltern Hills became part of me. Yet I have spent much of my adult life in large cities – notably, London and Paris. When in the city, after a few weeks, I crave woods and hills, and places where the sounds are not man-made. But, when in the countryside, I soon miss the cafes, the diversity of people, the play of light on buildings and pavements… So, much of my personal work as a photographer has been fuelled by a kind of tension between these two apparently opposite worlds.  But are they so opposite? After all, in Europe at least, most of the countryside has been shaped by human use over the centuries. And, in cities, ‘nature’ is everywhere, whether birds, street trees, parks and gardens and, especially, rivers, as well as that great leveller, the weather.

During the 20 years I lived in Paris, this urban/nature tension became pronounced, a kind of internal echo of the weekend and summer migrations of Parisians to the countryside and back. And this is reflected in my work. When I returned to live in London in 2006, the tension subsided.  Most of my work since then has focused on ancient trees and woodlands, perhaps going back to my roots and abandoning the struggle. The UK has more veteran trees than anywhere else in Europe. And, as if to honour the centuries that they have been standing, I have started to use pinhole photography, with its long exposures, rather than the sharp-shooting cameras of the city street.

Awards

First prize, Daily Telegraph / Novartis "Visions of Science" awards, 2004.