Biography

Michael was born and raised just outside of London and has a degree in Film, with Media & Video production, and is currently working on his Master’s degree in Fashion Photography.

Michael started photography after graduating in 2001, when he couldn’t afford a video camera, but wanted to keep in practice, which looking for work in the film industry. In 2009, Michael turned professional working as a corporate documentary photographer and later moved to portrait and headshot photography.

In 2020, Michael won the converted South East Photographer of the Year, and South East Creative Photographer of the Year, with the Master Photographers Association award, and followed that up with the London and Essex Male Portrait Photo of the Year, in 2021.

Michael has a number of different neurodivergence’s, which can be challenging, but he does not allow this to stop him from doing things and he has been very active in the professional photographic neurodivergent community for a number of years.

When Michael is not working or studying, he enjoys cinema, music, gaming and science fiction/fantasy.

 Artists Statement

My work is split into two styles, normal portraiture, in particular headshots, as well as fine-art portrait photography, where I  enjoy telling stories through my photography.  My work is generally detailed and technical, with the aim of taking the viewer into my imagination.

My influences stem from my childhood.  Science fiction and fantasy were always a big influence, with films like Star Wars, Time Bandits, Blade Runner, TV series like Space 1999, Star Trek and Star Wars, as well as books and Role Play games, such as The Dragonlance Chronicles, and the Fighting Fantasy books.

Cinema has also been a massive influence on the way I like to create visual stories.  I like to create characters and let the viewer use their imagination to create their own stories based on my work.

I have also been influenced by a number of the world’s leading photographers, such as Eugenio Recuenco, Frank Okenfels III, Joe Mcnally, Yousuf Karsh and Marco Grob.

Over the last few years, my work has been moving from portrait to fine-art portrait, though I have used very traditional portrait lighting, which can be seen for much of my ‘Dragons in human form project’.  My future work will be moving away from this to more natural lighting with a more cinematic style.