Hi,

I remember very clearly when I was twelve an art teacher at school saying this to me. They say that one never forgets a good teacher well that is very true but I say that one never forgets a bad one either. What he meant was that I couldn’t draw or paint, I just couldn’t translate what I was seeing into something on paper and as for anything abstract well that word simply wasn’t in his dictionary.

One must also consider that computers and digital photography didn’t exist then so it was a case of those that could draw/paint and those that couldn’t, those who had some artistic talent and those that didn’t, black and white with no grey . If I’ve learned one thing in life it is that there’s only one true black and one true white but a huge range of shades of grey (no pun) and that’s what I’ve always tried to convey to those of a younger generation that things are very rarely as black and white as they might at first seem.

I first became interested in photography a  few years later as it gave me an outlet for my artisitic leanings. I greatly admire the work of many photographers as I do the work of many painters and other art forms but analogue photography frequently left me wanting more and that’s where digital photography and digital processing comes in. Put simply it was a revellation!. For the first time in my life I could express myself artistically and experiment to my heart’s content. My camera and computer screen might be my brush and canvas but it’s the workings of my brain that is responsible for the end result.

So, I’d like to him for his comment because ever since then it’s been a lifelong ambition to prove him wrong. 🙂

Best wishes

Leigh