My images aim to provoke thought and reflection about global challenges, ranging from environmental sustainability and climate change through to water and other resource issues. For me an image is more than a document, more than a moment in time. I try to capture the emotion of the moment as a way of communicating insights about important issues.
A number of my colleagues tell me that I see things differently. I realised that I both think and see in images. In my early career I employed that facet of my thinking to develop ideas that challenged convention. Often I did this by facilitating discussions that led to new insights, or the re-framing of problems. Now I create images that open up new possibilities via the frame of the photograph.
All my images are created in camera, sometimes using digital enhancements to emphasise a point, rather like a novelist might use a “flashback” when revealing clues in a crime scene. I see a set of images as a way of telling a story. The truth in the image is thus revealed as the viewer engages in the looking process which I see as parallel to that of discussion in the verbal tradition.
