This portfolio dates from 2003 - about a year after I added monochrome to my colour work – until today. My first year of black & white was purposefully experimental. I wanted to explore both subjects and “look” extensively before settling on a particular route.

I’ve always been drawn to subjects having strong linear or graphic content. So, despite being described as “landscaper”, I’ve been just as comfortable photographing in cities. The same structural elements I often find in the urban environment attract me in the countryside too, and I’ve never shared in any need to eliminate the hand of man from my photographs on principle. After a while, it struck me rather forcibly that I was adopting a more structural approach to my monochrome work than I have when using colour – unsurprising I guess because in the absence of colour I have needed to increase the influence of another compositional tool to produce coherent, balanced photographs. So colour goes and form or structure grows to take its place.

To some extent, “Structures “reflects a choice of subject, and indeed much of my photography features a construction or an interesting part of one. But it also reflects an approach to composition and inclusion. “Structures” describes both the subjects and my approach to photographing them.

For inclusion in this portfolio I need to observe a simple and unambiguous design, and sufficient local contrast to make that design work as a photograph. The longer I follow this path the easier it seems to become to determine what’s on it and what’s off it.