A little intro to Me:
My penchant for photography was born from a father with a paparazzi-like Polaroid 'instant film' obsession. Fascinated by the magical process of seeing a face come alive in the palm of my hand and later developing prints in a cramped and freezing dark room for my Art O'Level credit, a lasting passion for capturing time fragments for posterity took hold.
Without expert guidance, from the age of 14, countless cameras passed through my hands and for a long while the experimentation exercise produced comically disastrous results. After university and whilst in my first corporate job at the Australian conglomerate Bond Corp., I was gifted an Olympus OM-1n by a commercial photographer and this got me pondering the art as a marketable craft. Evidently, it was my overbearing and eager interest in his kit bag that motivated the gesture but that moment also reset my career trajectory for what is bearing fruits decades later.
Segwaying from a staunchly corporate reality to the creative worlds of fashion, advertising, film/theatre and documentary production (both behind the scenes and in front of the lens), over a span of 40 years, my work-life alongside pick-of-the-crop filmmakers and directors of photography added invaluably to my quiet process of auto-didacticism. When not working on a moving pictures project, taking photographs eventually became the primary extracurricular activity of choice.
Today, photography has pole positioned itself as the natural fit both as a form of personal, creative expression and as a professional outlet. Behind the viewfinder and in that magical instance when the shutter steals the most fleeting of moments, I find the most truthful connection to the physical world and the people around me.
Photography as an activity has morphed into a gateway to alternate versions of life and ourselves and to me, hence, it is ph-Alchemy. Through my camera I strive to extract the hidden - yet to me, obvious - gems in people, things, creatures and all. It is my most heartfelt desired aim and hence, call my work Portal Portraits.
As a griot or a desert storyteller, I spin the tale as the moment dictate...
I look forward to discovering an alternate yet truthful version of YOU.