Gallerina

Born in Bishop Auckland in 1963, as a child I had a fascination for wildlife and in particular, African wildlife. I remember being glued to the tv watching programmes such as Tarzan and Daktari and spending my pocket money on animal books and plastic animal figures.

In 1980 after leaving school, I joined the RAF as a technician and in 1981, having qualified from my training and receiving my first decent pay cheque, I walked past a chemist and seeing a number of SLR cameras in the window, in I went and came out with a Pentax ME super. This was the start of my photography journey.

In 2007 I went on my first trip to Africa, to the Masai Mara in Kenya during the Wildebeest migration. In 2013, I went to South Africa for 3 months, at first working on a game reserve as a volunteer and then travelling the garden route before flying up to Livingstone in Zambia to witness the incredible Victoria falls.

Since then, I've been to Tanzania, Rwanda, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana as well as South Africa several times teaching photography on Photo Safaris.

In 2019 One of my photographs was 'Highly Commended' and the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards, run by the Natural History Museum in London. This being one of 100 photographs receiving recognition from the 48,000 entries. It was also selected from this exhibition to be 1 of 18 to be displayed in the State room in Number 10 Downing Street.

In March 2023 the Natural History Museum in Paris hosted an exhibition called ‘Felines’. A short piece of video that I filmed in South Africa, of lions at a waterhole at night, was played at the entrance to that exhibition.