Always Looking

World Photography Day

I sometimes wonder what it is about photography that has kept me coming back.

I’ve been taking photographs for around 25 years. In that time, photography has changed almost beyond recognition. Cameras have become smaller, cleverer and faster. Film has made way for digital, digital has made way for phones, and now, God help us, we have AI creating photographs of things that never existed.

And yet, I still love taking a photograph.

Perhaps because, for me, photography has never really been about the camera.

It’s about noticing.

Noticing the way the light falls across a table. The tiny detail on a plate. A weathered doorway. Someone’s hands as they work. The particular shape of a petal. A moment that might otherwise pass unnoticed.

That is what photography has always given me…a reason to look.

My professional work has taken me into kitchens, restaurants, studios and food producers’ worlds. I photograph food, products and places, working with chefs and makers to create images that make people stop scrolling, look a little closer and often want to raid the cake cupboard.

There is a lot of precision involved in that kind of photography. Light, composition, styling, texture, colour. Every little detail matters.

But alongside the commercial work, I’ve always needed photography that is simply mine.

I still love film. I love the slower process, the anticipation and the fact that you can't immediately check whether you've got the shot. I love making black and white photographs and the way stripping away colour can leave you with something raw and much more quiet.

My personal work tends to be about places, time, memory and atmosphere. The things that are difficult to explain but that you somehow recognise when you see them. Photography lets me hold onto those things for a little longer. And perhaps that is another reason I still take photographs.

Because everything changes. Places change. People change. Light changes. We change.

A photograph gives you a small piece of something that existed for just a moment.

It doesn't necessarily have to be important. It doesn't have to be technically perfect. Sometimes it is simply a reminder: I was here. I saw this. I noticed.

After 25 years, I’m still learning. Still experimenting. Still getting things wrong. Still getting excited when the light is just right.

And I hope I always will.

Because in a world where we are constantly being encouraged to consume more images, faster and faster, I think there is something rather wonderful about slowing down and actually looking.

So, on World Photography Day 2026, I’m celebrating the thing that started it all.

The simple act of picking up a camera and looking at the world a little differently.

I’m always looking.