Once upon a time I was a full time photographer working in London for various newspapers and magazines, mostly the Guardian and Time Out Magazine. These days I am running the family farm and property in Northamptonshire as well as taking on photographic commissions in the Midlands, London and elsewhere.
Photography has taken me all over the world; India , North America, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Mexico, New Zealand and Kurdistan (South Eastern Turkey and Northern Iraq). I am currently working on projects in India, Eastern Europe and Northamptonshire.
My photos have been reproduced in many major publications including The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, The Telegraph, Time Out and Time Magazine. In October 2012 I revisited Duhok in Northern Iraq to put on an exhibition of my Kurdish pictures at The Duhok Gallery.
Many thanks to my great friend Walid Siti and his family, without whom none of my Iraq travels would have been possible.
Photo above. From left to right, Walid Siti, me, Mohamed Siti, Walid's cousin, Ali. 1992.
Since the First Gulf war in 1991 the Kurds of Northern Iraq, sandwiched between Iran, Syria, Turkey and Southern Iraq have been enjoying a fragile peace. Following the Second Gulf War, the discovery of significant oil wells and an extended period of stability under a democratically elected regional government there has been considerable investment and development.
Much has changed but it seems that at the moment the traditional world and the new run along side by side. I returned to Duhok for a week in October 2012....
The Kurds are a nation without a homeland. There are Kurdish communities in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Georgia. Many displaced Kurds also live in western Europe. I began photographing the Kurdish community in London in 1989 and made two visits to South Eastern Turkey in 1989 and 1991. In 1992 Following the end of the first Gulf war I visited the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq.
There was an exhibition of my Kurdish photographs in Duhok Gallery, Northern Iraq during October 2012.
I first discovered The Sendzimira Steelworks in Nowa Huta near Krakow when I was photographing the elections in Poland in 1991. I promised myself that if I ever went back to Krakow I would get permission to photograph them. Back in Eastern Europe to photograph the accession to the EU in 2004 I managed finally to gain access.
A 48,000 mile road trip. Since my children were 5 we have driven them to school. The current 12 mile journey takes us along an undulating stretch of countryside in Northamptonshire and Rutland. We have 6 years and about 48,000 miles to go. All the pictures are taken within a few metres of the route.
In 2004 I drove through the eight countries in Eastern Europe that had just joined the EU.
