About Me
Fraser - recording of a new song 'Rag & Bones' in London 2008
Women In Film
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I am an artist, I take photographs and work alongside singer/songwriter Fraser Anderson, who I created Monochrome Records with in 2005. As far as my photography goes, I am passionate about this artform, I work mainly in black and white, still love film, always will but find I work more in digital these days, that may change one day. I travel whenever I can, photographing what I see on the journey. I live in the south of France.
I danced from the age of 4 and grew up by the sea, on the east coast of Scotland against a backdrop of crashing waves, winds that felt strong enough to blow you away, seagulls and the tide, the ever changing movement of the tide and a view of Edinburgh across the water, the hope and twinkling lights of the city I grew to love. I loved to escape into the movie world and found a love for old black and white movies, would spend many hours in that world ..... fell in love with the movies and the world in monochrome too, I love the early colour movies too, just the simplicity and the glamour of that era, the way the light effected the mood.
The first first time I saw a Magnum photographers work, it really hit me and changed the way I saw everything, I realised then what this level of photography can hold, emotion and depth, a place where you can feel so much, all that transferred through a one-dimensional image documenting a tiny moment of life and so began my friendship with the camera.
I bought my first proper camera when I was 20 and put together a portfolio, went off to college to learn how to work a darkroom and absorb the technical side of it and then learned the rest by just doing it, getting out there, made mistakes and learned, mostly I learned just to feel it, feel the scene as much as seeing it, it's the feeling that tells me when to press the shutter.
I have worked on different projects and have photographed many interesting and beautiful subjects and places, worked with artist Jack Vettriano for a while too in London, we were brought up in the same area of Scotland, were inspired by the same backdrop of sea and sand.
At the moment Monochrome Records is pretty busy, we are just about to start recording a new album and will be getting prepared for this over the summer and I am just about to launch my new website Thetwentycollection.com - showing a whole range of my new and old work. The Twenty Collection is a body of work which was put together using the use of boundaries to encourage the act of diving deeper, it worked really well. The first collection was shot in Perthshire, Scotland 20 images, taken over 20 days within a 20km radius. I am planning my next 20 collection in Barcelona this summer - 20 hours in the city, so looking forward that experience. I am also putting together an exhibition which will be shown in the South of France in a beautiful venue - details later...Photography for me is at the centre of all that I do, recording these moments, it's also the perfect way for me to find the truth about things, get past the facade right to the root.
"The camera need not be a cold, mechanical device. Like the pen it is as good as the man who uses it, it can be an extension of mind and heart" John StienbeckFrance 2006/2007
"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead."
--Oscar Wilde