With Pakistani & Afghan aid workers. Northwest Frontier, Pakistan
I have loved photography since I was 10 years old after winning a camera in a sports day race.
I went on to get a photography degree at Plymouth College of Art then spent 12 years working in photography in education.
I went on to get a photography degree at Plymouth College of Art then spent 12 years working in photography in education.
In 1980, my now wife Jan and I embarked on a world trip. With a big bag of film, we hoped to photograph something that would lead us into making our passion for photography and travel into a real job. We took 2 years to circle the earth!
Whilst in India we met Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala, India, the exiled home of the Dalai Lama. We made friends with the Tibetan Youth Congress and offered them our photographic services to publicise their plight and highlight Tibet’s appalling suffering at the hands of the Chinese invaders.
A year later, on return to the UK, we took our photographs of Tibetan refugees to the Tibet Society. They funded us to go to India & Nepal for a year to document life in 30 refugee settlements. We spent a wonderful year with the Tibetans visiting 30 settlements from south India to just south of Everest in Nepal. Back in the UK, we created an exhibition which was shown in Devon, London & Switzerland where it was opened and blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. From money raised at the exhibitions, we were able to finance the upgrading of an old people's home in southern India, fund the initial building of a school near Darjeeling, India, and reroofing homes in a settlement in Solu Khumbu, Nepal.
A year later, on return to the UK, we took our photographs of Tibetan refugees to the Tibet Society. They funded us to go to India & Nepal for a year to document life in 30 refugee settlements. We spent a wonderful year with the Tibetans visiting 30 settlements from south India to just south of Everest in Nepal. Back in the UK, we created an exhibition which was shown in Devon, London & Switzerland where it was opened and blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. From money raised at the exhibitions, we were able to finance the upgrading of an old people's home in southern India, fund the initial building of a school near Darjeeling, India, and reroofing homes in a settlement in Solu Khumbu, Nepal.
Armed with a portfolio of photographs I approached the major UK charities that worked overseas. Luckily many of them wanted to employ me and for the next 20 years, I did assignments in over 30 countries.
I saw the wonders as well as the disasters of the world and enjoyed the company of some of the poorest but most generous people on earth. This website is dedicated to them and to my wonderful wife & best friend Jan.
"All the photographs are scans of slides and negatives. Before digital technology, I had to carry all my films in lead-lined boxes to shield them from airport x-rays. No firing off loads of shots as with digital cameras and hoping one might be OK, every shot at 60p each had to count with no way of knowing the results until they were processed, often 3 or more months later when I got home!"