My passion is art documentary photography of industrial scenes and the environment of the steam railway. I grew up in the last decades of heavy industry in this country and became fascinated by steam, coal and iron. My work reflects this absorption and portrays the last working vestiges and silent remains of that era.

I have travelled in many regions of the UK, Spain, East Germany, Poland, Bosnia, Serbia, Zimbabwe, China and the Middle East where such childhood memories could still be stirred. Consequently it is also an inner journey ‘revisiting the past in the present’ to create impressionist and atmospheric images that echo those experiences.

Traditional darkroom hand printing is the medium used to accomplish the mood of what I experience on location. Seminal to this is the sensitive choice of printing papers and a diversity of processing techniques. This is an ongoing project and adventure.

Darkroom printing is a craft process and consequently even conventional prints may differ in small details. Due to the nature of lith/toner/dyes/bleaching processes even limited prints may vary in interpretation. This gives them a uniqueness which contrasts with digital where once the computer is set up a series of identical prints can be produced.

The behaviour of these darkroom processes enables endless creative possibilities including work based on the same image. Prints are derived from black and white negatives, colour negatives or colour transparencies..

The digital age has had a reductionist effect on darkroom photographic materials and some are now in short supply. Papers and developers have disappeared although other new papers and developers do arrive on the market. This means that a paper can be discontinued at any time and is frequently impossible to replace. This may affect print orders. No digital methods have been used.