FACE IN TIME

I usually work on long-term photography projects, often over many years.  Sometimes they are published or exhibited, other times they gestate over decades, or perhaps never see the light of day, existing only in negative files or on hard-drives.

When Face In Time is complete it will have been fifty years in the making.  The earliest images were made in 1979 when I first became serious about photography.  My art school tutors Geoff Holt, John Myers and John Taylor encouraged my interest and recommended I seek out the work of such practitioners as August Sander, Diane Arbus, Walker Evans, Eugene Atget and Bill Brandt.  Their work still resonates with me today.

Face In Time explores the social and cultural aspects of modern living, and the aesthetic nature of photographic portraiture itself.  It also pays homage to August Sander’s seminal book, Antlitz der Zeit (Face of Our Time), first published in 1929.  The book attempted to portray the complexity of German people and society in the early 20th Century, no matter their ethnicity, religion, wealth, income, social status or occupation.  

Sander’s book shows difference and diversity in German society of this period and not the idealised notion of an Aryan race.  When the Nazis came to power in 1933 they destroyed the plates, burnt all available copies of the book and Sander himself faced intimidation and persecution.

All the images from Face In Time have been made using a large-format 5"x4" plate camera on a tripod. Working this way means the sitter engages directly with the activity of being photographed and can present themselves as they wish to be seen. Somewhat akin to painting or drawing, it is a slow and deliberate process. Today I use a 5"x4" brass and mahogany Gandolfi camera that was originally owned by my art college tutor Geoff Holt.

When complete, this project will cover a fifty year period, from the latter part of the 20th Century to the first part of the 21st Century - 1979-2029.  2029 will also be the centenary anniversary of Sander’s Antlitz der Zeit.

I studied Fine Art at Stourbridge College of Art before going on to complete an MA and PhD in Photography at the Royal College of Art in London.  My work has been published and exhibited widely in the UK and abroad. I was elected a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists in 2025.