Artist Statement, written July 2019

I want the subjects of my photographs to be active participants, not passive objects. All of my strongest photographs come from building a relationship with my subjects, whether that be just for the duration of a shoot, or for a lifetime. My subjects are my friends and my collaborators. 

I am interested in the human details of my subjects; the textures of their skin, the folds of their flesh, their scars and freckles and dimples. I shoot a lot of nudes to bring these details to the fore, as well as stripping my subjects of the social associations embedded in their clothing. Shooting nudes both unifies and separates my subjects; they are together in their nakedness, but their nakedness also reveals their individual features.

The way I shoot the nude human form both references and defies the tradition of nude figurative art. My use of natural and available light directly references traditional painting and the concepts of beauty associated with it, yet I refuse to turn my subjects into idealised versions of themselves, or into archetypal forms removed from the individual. I find beauty in the unadorned details of bodies, using the mechanics of my camera to draw focus upon them, then using painterly light and shadow to emphasise them, to explore them, and to invite those who view my photographs to explore with me.

As I draw attention to the surfaces of the skin of my subjects, I also draw attention to the surface of my photographs, through the presence of flaws and defects; specks of dust, film grain, the occasional light leak or chemical quirk. In a world increasingly filled with incorporeal imagery everywhere we turn, I want my photographs to be seen as objects as well as images, with a physical and tangible presence. This is also why I choose to use analogue photographic processes in an increasingly digital age. The tactile nature of such processes brings me much more satisfaction than sitting in front of a computer screen ever could. I prefer to end up with a physical object in my hands, created with light and chemicals, which echoes the physical presence of the subject of the image.