Writing – essays, personal pieces and the novel

Text-led pieces rather than photo sets. Some are about the ethics of photographing strangers and the awkwardness that comes with it; others are more personal.

The Reader and the Writer – a novel
7 October 2026
The Reader and the Writer follows Judith, who visits her mother in a psychiatric ward out of duty, guilt and a love long since curdled into endurance – until unsigned letters begin arriving, the unravelling…
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Photographers, perverts and paranoia…revisited.
13 June 2023
A while back I posted an article called Photographers, perverts and paranoia – it might be time for an update. I had an interesting, if somewhat tense, discussion at one of my recent presentations that…
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Words about my father
12 April 2020
Words about my father So what do I know? I have a vague memory of deep set eyes and heavy eyebrows. A slender frame with hairy arms. I may have imagined it. There were some…
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Photographing the Homeless
6 November 2019
A few thoughts on photographing the homeless I’ve often seen the argument that street photographers shouldn’t photograph the homeless. The reasoning seems to roughly come down to three things: The ‘easy option’ The ‘they’re too…
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Photographers, Perverts and Paranoia
21 August 2019
Photographers are the bad guys now. A few days back a friend of Bridget’s was taking pictures in Bradford city centre, the City Park. Bridget’s friend is a keen amateur photographer who uses a Canon 5D DSLR.…
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Cold Turkey – coming off anti-depressants
11 August 2019
A photographic essay on the side-effects of anti-depressant withdrawal. I am – or was – a very level, calm person. Not prone to panic. Around 2004 I was prescribed a high dose anti-depressant, Dosulepin, as…
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The angry mob
6 April 2019
Over the years we’ve taken thousands of pictures, several hundred of these have been posted on social media. Facebook groups in particular have been useful in getting the photographs seen by a wider audience. In…
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The backlash against street photographers
26 June 2018
Watch out there’s a photographer about! I don’t know if it’s just here in the UK but there seems to be a growing suspicion and even open animosity towards photographers, especially street photographers. Recently someone…
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