Prestbury Living, Oliver Wood Feature
A local magazine (Prestbury Living) has recently done a feature on me as part of the ‘local people’ strand. The objective is to give local people some kind of an insight into what the hell it is I am doing with camera most of the time.
The feature includes the usual biographical intro and five selected photos with artistic descriptions. All the content was provided by me and I am quite pleased that the repro on the photos is OK though this low grade shot of the mag doesn’t really do it justice.
The Prestbury Living editor asked me to define my artistic motives / philosophy :-
Can you provide a bit of information about your photography style and what you try to capture in photos?
"I think photography is a very personal form of creative expression, a deeply psychological medium that conveys some ineluctable inner truth about personal perception(s). I think I am subject to an intense sense of “visual intrigue”, which comes from a semi existential and highly self contained view of the world around me though this is also mitigated by a feeling of wonder and magic that is more aligned with metaphysical ideas. I have never lost touch with a certain child like curiosity and nothing has become common place or ordinary. The chance manifestations of objects, light and weather provide almost endless possibilities for pictures that convey this deep inner sense of my environment and provide a personal record of the moment with qualities that transcend the self evident subject matter. Someone once described my photography as being a little like “visual haiku”.
Another commentator recently defined my style as being a little like the sort of photos that Magritte would have taken if he had been a photographer and I was quite happy with that.
