How did you first begin interest in photography?
In early adulthood – I was given a Pentax K100 with a 35mm lens, it was stolen, along with a whole Dark Room of gear and a years worth of images, that was the building of Orchard Sq, ..only to be replaced in 2000 with an Agfa cl18 and then a Fuji a 1300 .
Have you had any formal training in photography?
I took a photography course with N.A.C.R.O and another at Mount Pleasant community Centre in dark room development. (it is still there empty with all the gear, so one is told) but am mostly self-taught.
What kind of photographer would you say you are?
Abstract, Urban, Bucolic documentary image maker.. sounds fucking pretentious, agreed, but I had a website named pretentiousartist.com (still online)
Is there any particular photography you prefer? All of what I do, if it becomes a job it becomes crass, as simple as.
Do you work commercially?
No, that's not the aim of what I do and why I do photography, all my work is copyleft and as an anarchist I refuse to work commercially.
Do you work alone?
No, not always do I work alone, much of what I do is through urban exploration so there is a need to have someone with me, other times yes, I do work on my own.
What kind of portfolio do you have?
There was a self-produced zine, as well as a website which is kept very up to-date it is very representative of my work. I also have a large, rather chaotic but regularly updated Flickr account.
How do you get people to see it?
Mostly I tag my photos extensively on Flickr and ensure that my website has good, descriptive and relevant text, plus plenty of links, so that search engines will rank it highly.
How much competition is there?
There is a lot of competition, and I like that fact it keeps the common man in the game, although a lot of it is not great quality including mine.
What do you do to advertise yourself?
I just use Search Engine Optimisation techniques to make my photographs easy to find on line.
What makes your work stand out from other people?
I like to think I have a fairly well developed personal style – this is not necessarily something that is planned, rather something I can’t help. I don’t like covering the same ground that people have already covered, so I am always looking for different approaches to images at the time of writing this August 2009 I have been doing a lot of images around flowers, and the bucolic Sheffield, before there was a lot of urban exploration.
Do you advertise?
Yes through stickers, home made cards, creating controversy and other mediums.
How much free time do you have for yourself to work on other photography projects?
This is what I do full time, I have the privilege of long term unemployment, so I use this to the positive of photography, there has been offers of work but they're too restrictive.
What equipment do you use?
Camera bodies: Canon EOS 30D and 20D. Pentax K100D
Lenses: 16-35mm
300/100mm
28/mm
70-200mm
Tripod: Megax/ Jessops
What computer software do you use?
The GIMP free open source software
How do you back your work up?
External hard disk.
What do you do if you make a mistake?
Keep going and try to learn from it!
What photographers have influenced your current work?
So many… but particularly Dan Sumption, Ms Moll(though we have fallen out), others on Flickr and anyone going against the grain.
Do you maintain copyright on all your work?
There is no copyright on my work, all is copyleft
Do you arrange royalties and rights before you do a job?
If doing a gig, and other work I'll give them a card and tell them about copyleft and why.. a good means to talking about Anarchism.
Do you ever work for free?
Yes, all the time. I never ask for payment.
What are the most important aspects to working un-commercially?
I am lucky in that I don’t need to make any of my money from photography, so for me the most important aspects are the opportunity to learn & to take interesting photos.
How do you take yourself forward?
Taking photos & contemplating photos, being unemployed is a joy in what I do, it gives me some real freedom.
You hand code all your updates to underclassrising.net
Yes, I do hand code all my own html/css well there are templates for my work, so often it is just copy/paste the code, re-work the images in Gimp, add a link to the start page and upload. It used to change and be a little pretentious but moving it to underclassrising.net it has become, I hope, stable and easy for people to use, well that is the aim at least.
What are your plans for the future
There are none, you can not plan an empty derelict space likewise with mother earth you have to go with the ebb and flow of the subject, the last urban exploration happened due to me taking images in the city of Sheffield, I got talking, it led me to Tinsley Wire, three visits in total, from there shit happened so inside there was a need to take images of flowers and the bucolic side of Sheffield.
Are there any more thoughts you would like to share.
I love this city, as a photographer it gives so many opportunity, the loss of our history and heritage is what I document through urban exploration, words fail myself what it means to stand in a part derelict space, sometimes as with Tinsley Wire under demolition and with Sheffield Crown Court where the flora of Mother Earth has taken over, I guess look at the images. I hope this gives across that side of what I do, then there is the bucolic side of Sheffield, what a joy this city can be much of the time..
# notes questions nicked from here with love to Monkey, Dan Sumption, Dan Hart, who help make this happen, Thanks to Access Space Ltd, the G8 coming to Sheffield 2005, Sheffield Indymedia, U75. Hugs to Heather P, countless people, see facebook page for myself, yes all of them there have played or still play a part in what I do, google ur32daurt for other means of talking, asking me to do work, future plans and thoughts then of course underclassrising.net go there..