I was born in Southwark, London, in 1978, just before my parents relocated to the suburb of Bexleyheath. My dad was a nightclub doorman, and my mum, a Yugoslavian/Croatian immigrant, was an au pair. Neither was interested in the arts, although I consider my dad quite creative. I enjoyed drawing from an early age, but wasn’t introduced to photography until I was 11 when I joined my primary school’s so-called camera club. However, the experience was short-lived, and it was only when I attended Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication in 1996 to undertake a BTEC Foundation Diploma in Art and Design that I discovered the medium properly and purchased my first SLR, a second-hand Pentax P30T.
Those early days — learning the basics and developing and making black-and-white prints in the darkroom — were extremely pleasurable. However, misguided advice led me to pursue a BA in Graphic Design at Coventry University instead. Photography was still on my mind throughout those years, although nothing progressed beyond the occasional bit of dabbling, particularly with a Lomo LC-A.
In 2003, I decided it was time to follow my passion. Through a contact, I landed a position as an assistant to Eva Mueller, a New York-based fashion photographer. It was an eye-opening experience that U.S. immigration deemed I’d had enough of after three months. Disheartened by being back in England and fueled by intrigue in Japan’s aesthetics from my graphic design days, I relocated to Tokyo. Unfortunately, this also meant taking a non-photography-related job.
Years of bad decisions and bad (but fun) living followed before I pulled myself together and enrolled in a Master’s degree course in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at the London College of Communication, graduating in 2012. It was the grounding experience I needed, but it took me a long time to realise this wasn’t the right path for me as a photographer.
As was the case for many people, a big change came during the coronavirus pandemic. I was infected with COVID-19 in early 2020 and was left with debilitating symptoms (Long COVID) for several years after. Accepting that my body could no longer handle the rigours of being out and about on assignments, I turned my attention to studio photography. I had always been interested in still-life, but time, cost and space had kept me from exploring it more seriously. That was less of an issue now. After a few years of building up my skills, further life developments (namely, the birth of my daughter) led me to put new projects on hold.
Currently, I have a small studio in a high school where I teach photography and continue to scratch my creative itch whenever the opportunity allows.