About Me
Born in Cape Town, moved to England with my family when I was very young. Lived in the UK for 9 years before returning to Cape Town in the early 90’s. Finished my schooling and went to the UK to work on a farm for a year straight after. Lasted two weeks there… (farming not for me)… then travelled around the UK working in bars, factories, surf shops, etc. ending up in London for 5 months or so. Came back to Cape Town to study a B.Sc in Oceanography and Environmental Science at UCT. Obtained my undergraduate degree and was told by lecturers that my only real option was to study more, which was the last thing I wanted to do after three years of studying! So, instead, I went back to the UK to explore a bit, myself and the country included. Spent two years there, where I rediscovered my childhood love of photography and decided photography was the career path I wanted to follow. I then came back to Cape Town and I went on to study a National Diploma in Photography.
After completing this, I spent a year working as a freelance photographic assistant to various local and international photographers. I then went on to spend just over a year working as a full-time assistant for a very talented local photographer, Anthony Friend, where I gained a huge amount of experience and knowledge regarding photography and the photography industry. We would shoot a very wide range of subjects, both in his studio and on location, from swimwear and lingerie to hotels, beds, make-up and cutlery for top end clients all the way through to perfumes and mens and womens fashion; using both natural and artificial lighting regularly. This variety of shooting exposed me to many different techniques and ‘secrets’ of photography, giving me a huge base of lighting knowledge to draw from and apply to my own projects. It also, crucially I believe, exposed me to the importance of interpersonal relationships when working on a project or a shoot and the how each person involved is essential to the project and to the final outcome.
The journey is a huge part of the outcome. Being there and being a part of it is crucial to the final result. We can’t separate ourselves from the world around us and everything we do influences everything else we do and, in turn, everything everyone else does. Yet none of it ultimately matters. So dive in and give and get the most you can from every situation, before someone else does!
