Fleeting moments

Having first picked up a camera at the age of 13, I effectively never put it down again. Initially I would take it with me on family walks in the forest during the weekends, on holidays and on school trips, paying for films, developing and printing out of my pocket money.

In the mid-90ies I decided to put the hobby on a more formal footing and took a 3 year course in social and documentary photography. Since those days I practically haven’t left home without a camera at all.

The genre of photography that adopted me - I didn’t really choose it, it chose me - is street photography. It is the genre that searches out candid moments of everyday life in public places and intends to capture the essence of those particular moments in time, be it the beauty, humour or sometimes even the sadness of the ordinary.

What is fascinating about street photography is its ability to capture moments that may seem trivial or insignificant at first glance but can reveal deeper insights upon closer examination. They encourage us to slow down, pay attention to our surroundings, and appreciate the beauty and complexity of the world around us. And quite often it turns out that the most interesting stories unfold in places we know well and have stopped paying much attention to.

For me, taking the camera out for a walk is the closest I have come to fully living in the moment, to being open to life unfolding without anything more pressing to do, without preconceived ideas, just willing to respond quickly to a situation developing and to see where it takes me. 

Having created a body of work coverin
g several several decades by now, one remarkable realisation was that images, those isolated moments in time, frozen for posterity, can take on new meanings and significance as time goes by and the context and our own perceptions change.

With this exhibition, I would like to invite you to see the world through my eyes and camera lens for a while in the hope that some of the instances presented here may chime with you, maybe remind you of something half-forgotten, or just entertain you.

I would like to dedicate this exhibition to a very dear friend who encouraged me persistently to show my work but who is unfortunately no longer here to see this event happen.

For Sophie.