Hi, I’m Michael and I am a photographic story teller.I have always been visual, I grew up with paper and pen in hand, spending many hours happily drawing. My other love as a child was cinema. I loved films like Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Time Bandits.

Around 1983, I was introduced to the Fighting Fantasy series of books, which in turn got me into role play games, which allowed me to stretch my vivid imagination.

After finishing school, I had a variety of jobs, before going to college to study caring. After I graduated, I went to work fro Thanet Mencap and lived down in Margate for several years. I was regularly role playing with the local group and it was in 1994 that I was introduced to re-enactment.

Various friends had joined a re-enactment group, enacting medieval period 850-1066ad and after seeing them fight. I thought that it would be fun to try. For the next 16 years, I regularly did re-enactment. I was a group leader for one group and training officer for one of the largest groups in the country.

Films, were still very important to me and in 1997, I decided it would be a good idea, to do a degree in film making, graduating in 2001. It was during this time that I decided to learn fight choreography but an accident meant that whilst I did pass, I was never going to be a fight choreographer.After leaving university, I started to look for work. Getting into the film industry is very hard, particularly when you have no contacts or money. Whilst looking for work, I couldn’t afford a video camera but I wanted to keep visually active and I bought my first SLR.

This wasn’t my first introduction to photography. I had a very false start in 1989 but due to some rather unkind comments from the gentleman who said he would teach me, I didn’t touch a photography camera for 11 years.When I bought my SLR, I didn’t realise how important photography would become in my life.After several years of trying,

I eventually worked my way into TV, working on several productions as a camera man and later as a director. During this time, I was getting much more into photography and felt much more drawn to that than to TV.

In 2009, I started to do professional photographic work but during this period, my mother was diagnosed with double cancer. Whilst I did some photographic work, I was unable to continue with the video work as I would spent much of my time looking after my mum.

I was able to do some photographic work and often worked corporate and event photography, as well as shooting photographic documentary footage for the use of companies

I also started to do extra work (supporting artist) because films wanted people who could sword fight. Over a 10 year period I worked on a variety of films, including: Guardians of the Galaxy, Robin Hood, Fury, Les Miserable, Fantastic Beasts and where to Find them and my favourite to work on, Muppets Most Wanted.

Sadly, in 2016, my mother cancer took a turn for the worse and I had to care for her full time, until her passing in late 2017. She had been my biggest supporter for many years

Soon after her passing I started doing professional photography.

Photography is my passion. In particular themed and theatrical portraiture. It allows me to work with people and be creative at the same time.

I tend to work with clients to try and create unique images, which look good and tell a story.