I was fascinated by the fact that despite the apparent ruin of the place there was still a very vibrant market. So I started photographing the market traders who worked so happily in this strange environment.

This was in 1999.

Soon after work started on the redevelopment of the area so my project moved from recording the market traders to recording the entire area. 3 years later and after many photographs, working with the architects, the council and others I had a very large body of work. The images have been shown in various exhibitions, and are to be used in a forthcoming book.

In 2002, I followed the Football World cup in Japan. This was as part of a long-term project by photographer and video artist Ravi Deepres, concerned with Patriotism and culture. The project is in fact called ‘Patriots’.

In practical terms, three of us, myself, Ravi and Kevin – from a base in Tokyo – set out in a van and arrived at match venues early in the morning and photographed the fans both in the build up to the matches, and afterwards.

Our journey through Japan was also part of the work. A few of the photos have already appeared in Ravi’s recent exhibition at the ‘Hatton’ Gallery in Newcastle, but a larger exhibition solely about the Japan trip is planned soon.

In 2000, I took some documentary and posed photographs for 'Tommy Gunn’. ‘Tommy Gunn’ is a play, and ‘live internet event’ exploring football culture. The play was written by Chris Finn, with whom I took the photographs.
The images were incorporated as an element of the performance by being projected behind the two actors.

This work was commissioned by 'Pitchbend Productions', in Sheffield and shown as part of a larger arts and sport event in Sheffield. I took the photographs in Sheffield, Newcastle and Birmingham.

Over two years, I lived periodically in the Cowley area of Oxford. It was very different to anywhere I had lived before so I kept a visual diary to go along with notes that I had made about the photographs.

I found Oxford very intriguing as a place to live and wanted to explore it. I have never put an exhibition of his project together although I have used some of the images in other exhibitions. It is more of a ‘study’ or work in progress…

In 1994, I worked with the British Red Cross at the ‘Butlins’ holiday camp in Morecombe. Every year the Red Cross provide a holiday for elderly and less-able people, many of whom would otherwise be unable to take a break at all. It also serves as a training opportunity for all the ‘Butlins’ staff at the beginning of the new holiday season.

The five-picture photo-story shown here won an award in the 'Observer/David Hodge Young Photojournalist of the year’ award 1994.

This is a project in development that examines what it is to be a man in a society in which traditional gender roles are increasingly questioned. The aim is to photograph men of all types, from macho men to effeminate men, old timers through to youngsters.

Thus attempting to capture and study some of the confusion and anger that we men feel when we find ourselves confronted with disparate, and loosely-formed ideas of how we should be, or how we fail to live up to, the ideal of a modern man.

In 1994, I started to photograph the city centre of Manchester very early in the morning. The idea being that the city takes on a completely different guise when it is empty of people. You notice things that you would never notice during the hustle and bustle of the day.

The images were exhibited with text that I had taken from various novels relating to travel generally, or more specifically to the idea of being a stranger. Examples being Hardy’s ‘Jude the Obscure’ and Laurie Lee’s ‘As I walked out one midsummer morning’.