I first started my working days in Liverpool City Planning Department in the early 1980's. I was given the consummate responsibility of deciding where to plant trees in a post riot torn Toxteth. This involved drawing little squiggly circles on a large-scale street map. It was Michael Heseltine's solution to restoring racial and class harmony in the Inner Cities….. Deciding there was probably little future in this I moved onto London and then to Art School.

It was then I discovered photography, and later super 8mm film. The bug bit, I was hooked… What was it that made some pictures good and others bad? Why is it that some pictures demand an emotional response? Something you just can't help but react to? It's still with me today, and never fails to confound how many elements can be built into an image to achieve the required response, albeit in Ads, movies or magazines….

After graduating from film school I trod the well-worn path through music/fashion clips and onto TV commercials. For the first time in my life I was being paid to do something I loved.

This year I shot my first short film 'About a Girl' I'm really pleased with the result, it was as far removed from my advertising work as it can get, or maybe even a kick off against it. Though for some reason the idea of a purely character led performance really allowed me to again find something new in my approach to work. That's something I hope will always stay with me….