I am a photographic artist and educator based in Suffolk, UK. I studied a diploma in Photojournalism at the London College of Printing in 1988, going on to work as a freelance photographer. In 1990 I began studying my Masters at the Royal College of Art, graduating with a Distinction. I continued to specialise in documentary photography, by proposing my own feature stories to newspapers and magazines as well as gaining direct commissions including photographing Sir Paul McCartney at his recording studio - to view a selection of this work click here on my documentary archive.
In 1995, I moved back to Suffolk and began teaching part-time, initially at Lowestoft College and eventually moved on to teaching on the modular photography degree at the University of Suffolk. I left teaching to start a family in 2000 and also began working on landscape print projects in 2000 using initially medium format film and liquid photographic installations. I became a mum to Stanley in 2001 and to Albert in 2003. My first project From Out of Space was exhibited at the Special Photographers Company in 2003 then the body of work was accepted and sold by Print Sales at The Photographers Gallery, London until 2007. I resumed part-time teaching when my children started school. I qualified formally, gaining a PGCE in 2013 as well as working on my own photography projects again and occasionally exhibiting. In 2016, I was teaching A-level photography at Stowmarket High School when I entered the Sky Arts, Master of Photography television competition based in Rome. To my surprise, I was chosen as one of the twelve contestants and given time off to take part, thinking I would be home pretty quickly. However, in a rather grueling eight-week elimination process, I eventually reached the final and was chosen by the judges as the unanimous winner of that year's contest.
In 2018, I decided to become fully freelance. I was commissioned by the PhotoEast Festival to work with the Ipswich refugee community, using the theme of 'Belonging'. This evolved into a body of work, whereby I bonded my photographic portraits of the community onto large sheets of OSB board, finishing them with graffiti paints. I invited the participants to handwrite their stories directly onto them. I have continued with this project as personal work and have since collaborated with a Syrian man and a Ukrainian mother and daughter. This work can be viewed here. I have continued teaching as a freelancer by creating self-designed photography workshops and programmes for a broad range of organisations and people, including Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children for Suffolk County Council, NEACO for schools, Suffolk Artlink, and one-to-one adult sessions. This I do alongside my photography projects and commissions. I recently began running bespoke one-to-one on-line mentor sessions for photographers too.
During lockdown I worked on a portfolio of colour landscape photographs entitled Close to Home and further developed the process of printing photographs and archival imagery onto alternative surfaces such as wood, concrete and flint.
In May 2021 I received a Develop Your Creative Practice grant from The Arts Council, England to further research the bonding of photographs onto concrete surfaces for exterior display. As a result, I collaborated with Epson UK and exhibited a 60cm x 45cm concrete example entitled 'A Lowestoft Man' on the Epson stand at the NEC Photo Show In September 2022. I worked towards upscaling the image, which included finding sealant solutions, and in late November, with the support of Epson UK, East Suffolk Council & Anglian Water, successfully bonded and sealed a 166cm x 120cm version of the photograph at Ness Point in Lowestoft, the UK's most easterly point. Over a year later it is still in perfect condition!
During the third lockdown in 2021 I made a concrete portrait of my son Stan, specifically for the popular Grayson Perrys Art Club programme, using the given theme of 'Dreams'. I then reshot the concrete portrait in foggy conditions at Felixstowe Beach. The photograph was selected from the thousands of entries as one of Grayson's 'top picks'. It was exhibited in the series two group show at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery from December 2021 until September 2022.
In March 2022, I worked on a commission for Dudley County Council in the West Midlands creating sample pieces along with 25 other artists, to be part of the intrinsic build of the new Metro system. Initially, I visited a local shopping centre with my pop-up studio and photographed members of the community. I bonded 2 of the most successful images onto concrete slabs overlaid with archival maps of the town. These were exhibited in July '22 alongside the other artists' work. It is my aim to work on more similar commission-based work and build-up my portraiture and alternative surface portfolio. Please get in contact if you would like to discuss projects that you have in mind.