Robert Capa said “In photography it’s not enough to be a genius, you also have to be Hungarian”. Well my mother’s family came from Hungary a long time ago – I’ve got a bit of Hungarian in me somewhere. So there is hope.
After a Chemistry degree and an MBA (Oxford, York and Manchester Universities), I worked for NatWest Bank for 3 years. Since 1976 I have had several businesses and acted as director and financial advisor to some of the fastest growing small technology companies in the UK. Following an extended period as group finance director of a high growth electronic engineering company, I am now a technology business director, mentor and developer. I am a humanist and was Chair of the Board of Trustees of the British Humanist Association 2006-2016. I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Patron of Brighton Photo Fringe.
A photography autodidact, I was interested in photography from childhood, and a “sabbatical” year in 1982 allowed me to develop this during an extended trip to China and Japan. Since then I have also collected and dealt in photographic prints and books. I was very involved with the Hereford Photography Festival over a period of 10 years, with three years as Festival Director.
My photographic interests are about reality – the space we occupy, people, their relationships, the patterns and shapes of their living and work spaces, which show what their lives are about. Following Dorothea Lange, I use Francis Bacon’s motto:
“The contemplation of things as they are, without substitution or imposture, without error or confusion, is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention.”
Exhibitions (Solo)
1999 “Culture Crash” – Images of Japan, 1982 – New & Lamb Galleries, University of Dundee.
1998 “Plum Pine & Bamboo” – Photographs of China –
Winchester College Treasury Gallery, Winchester, (in conjunction with the Duberly Collection of Chinese Art).
1997 “Culture Crash” – Traditional & Modern Images of Japan, Hereford Photography Festival, Kemble Gallery, Hereford.
1996 “People & Patterns” – Impressions of China,
Hereford Photography Festival, Kemble Gallery, Hereford.
Exhibitions (Group):
2016 The Photocopy Club “My Brighton” exhibition – images from my series “The World in Shades of Grey”
2015 Format Photography Festival Derby, “In Evidence” exhibition – 10 images from the series “Ex Terra Opes”
2014 Bohunk Gallery, Nottingham – Open Exhibition – from the series “Blocks to Thinking”
2012 Sample 12 – theprintspace gallery, London – from “Urbanizacion” series
2011 “Evidence of Civilisation” from the “Evolution of Landscape” on-going project. Open23 Exhibition – New Walk Gallery Leicester
“Urbanizacion” from the “Evolution of Landscape” on-going project. Midlands Open Exhibition – Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donnington, Leicestershire
2010 “Twenty” – Images from the series “Urbanizacion” as part of an exhibition celebrating 20 years of the Hereford Photography Festival, curated by Prof Paul Seawright, and including recent work by Al Vandenberg, Beth Yarnelle Edwards, Dave West, Jackie Nickerson, Jodi Bieber, John Bulmer, Liza Dracup, Martin Parr, Michael Danner, Paul Hill, Paul Shambroom, Pieter Hugo, Rankin, Robert Ashby, Roger Ballen, Shelby Lee Adams, Simon Norfolk, Tessa Bunney and Wang Qingsong.
2006 Picture House, Leicester – “Kybosh” exhibition at closing of gallery
2004 Salisbury Art Gallery – Arena Group Biennial Exhibition
2003 Lichtblick, Koln (and website) – “Images against the war”
1995 Hereford Independent Photography Group Exhibition
Appointments:
Savannah College of Art & Design (US) – Lacoste Campus, Provence, France
2006 Visiting Lecturer/Artist in Residence – Contemporary Photography
Hereford Photography Festival (Registered Charity)
(UK’s longest running international photography festival)
2004- Patron
2004 Trustee, Company Secretary
2000-2003 Festival Director – Festival Management; Funding; Sourcing exhibits; selection of commissioned photographers; Initiating and Managing community projects; Lectures: “Classic Image”, “Modern Classic Image” and “Collecting Photography”
1998-2000 Chair, Board of Trustees and Management Committee
1995-1998 Advisory Committee Member
West Midlands Rural Media Company, Hereford (Registered charity)
1997-8 Non Executive Director
Photographis (formerly Cara Photographica)
1990-2004 Joint principal – specialised photography book and print dealing
Light Impressions Europe Limited
1988-94 Chairman – leading UK art and security hologram manufacturer
Curating and Conferences
2003 rhubarb-rhubarb international portfolio meeting – Portfolio Reviewer
2002 fotofest international photography festival, Houston, Texas –
“Meeting Place” Portfolio Reviewer, Conference Speaker
eyepoppers Art Festival Gloucester – Selection Panel
rhubarb-rhubarb international portfolio festival – Portfolio Reviewer
h-Art (Hereford Art Week) – “First Exposure” exhibition and seminar for photographers professional development
2001 Fototage Internationale Festival, Herten, Germany
Curator, “Young British Photographers” exhibition; Portfolio Reviewer
Publications & Broadcasting
2011 UrbanPhotoMag online magazine – selected photographs from “Hora Lisboa 2011”
2005 Oxford University Press – Commissioned to write 14 pieces on key photographers, Hungarian and Czech photography, Exhibitions and Galleries of photography, for “The Oxford Companion to Photography”, published Oct 2005.
2004 Royal Photographic Society Contemporary Group Magazine:
“Transitions – ideas on transitions as a subject of photography”
2002 BBC TV Knowledge Channel: Photography Masterclass Programme
panel member with Eamonn McCabe
2000-2003 Numerous local radio interviews about the Hereford festival.
After a Chemistry degree and an MBA (Oxford, York and Manchester Universities), I worked for NatWest Bank for 3 years. Since 1976 I have had several businesses and acted as director and financial advisor to some of the fastest growing small technology companies in the UK. Following an extended period as group finance director of a high growth electronic engineering company, I am now a technology business director, mentor and developer. I am a humanist and was Chair of the Board of Trustees of the British Humanist Association 2006-2016. I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Patron of Brighton Photo Fringe.
A photography autodidact, I was interested in photography from childhood, and a “sabbatical” year in 1982 allowed me to develop this during an extended trip to China and Japan. Since then I have also collected and dealt in photographic prints and books. I was very involved with the Hereford Photography Festival over a period of 10 years, with three years as Festival Director.
My photographic interests are about reality – the space we occupy, people, their relationships, the patterns and shapes of their living and work spaces, which show what their lives are about. Following Dorothea Lange, I use Francis Bacon’s motto:
“The contemplation of things as they are, without substitution or imposture, without error or confusion, is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention.”
Exhibitions (Solo)
1999 “Culture Crash” – Images of Japan, 1982 – New & Lamb Galleries, University of Dundee.
1998 “Plum Pine & Bamboo” – Photographs of China –
Winchester College Treasury Gallery, Winchester, (in conjunction with the Duberly Collection of Chinese Art).
1997 “Culture Crash” – Traditional & Modern Images of Japan, Hereford Photography Festival, Kemble Gallery, Hereford.
1996 “People & Patterns” – Impressions of China,
Hereford Photography Festival, Kemble Gallery, Hereford.
Exhibitions (Group):
2016 The Photocopy Club “My Brighton” exhibition – images from my series “The World in Shades of Grey”
2015 Format Photography Festival Derby, “In Evidence” exhibition – 10 images from the series “Ex Terra Opes”
2014 Bohunk Gallery, Nottingham – Open Exhibition – from the series “Blocks to Thinking”
2012 Sample 12 – theprintspace gallery, London – from “Urbanizacion” series
2011 “Evidence of Civilisation” from the “Evolution of Landscape” on-going project. Open23 Exhibition – New Walk Gallery Leicester
“Urbanizacion” from the “Evolution of Landscape” on-going project. Midlands Open Exhibition – Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donnington, Leicestershire
2010 “Twenty” – Images from the series “Urbanizacion” as part of an exhibition celebrating 20 years of the Hereford Photography Festival, curated by Prof Paul Seawright, and including recent work by Al Vandenberg, Beth Yarnelle Edwards, Dave West, Jackie Nickerson, Jodi Bieber, John Bulmer, Liza Dracup, Martin Parr, Michael Danner, Paul Hill, Paul Shambroom, Pieter Hugo, Rankin, Robert Ashby, Roger Ballen, Shelby Lee Adams, Simon Norfolk, Tessa Bunney and Wang Qingsong.
2006 Picture House, Leicester – “Kybosh” exhibition at closing of gallery
2004 Salisbury Art Gallery – Arena Group Biennial Exhibition
2003 Lichtblick, Koln (and website) – “Images against the war”
1995 Hereford Independent Photography Group Exhibition
Appointments:
Savannah College of Art & Design (US) – Lacoste Campus, Provence, France
2006 Visiting Lecturer/Artist in Residence – Contemporary Photography
Hereford Photography Festival (Registered Charity)
(UK’s longest running international photography festival)
2004- Patron
2004 Trustee, Company Secretary
2000-2003 Festival Director – Festival Management; Funding; Sourcing exhibits; selection of commissioned photographers; Initiating and Managing community projects; Lectures: “Classic Image”, “Modern Classic Image” and “Collecting Photography”
1998-2000 Chair, Board of Trustees and Management Committee
1995-1998 Advisory Committee Member
West Midlands Rural Media Company, Hereford (Registered charity)
1997-8 Non Executive Director
Photographis (formerly Cara Photographica)
1990-2004 Joint principal – specialised photography book and print dealing
Light Impressions Europe Limited
1988-94 Chairman – leading UK art and security hologram manufacturer
Curating and Conferences
2003 rhubarb-rhubarb international portfolio meeting – Portfolio Reviewer
2002 fotofest international photography festival, Houston, Texas –
“Meeting Place” Portfolio Reviewer, Conference Speaker
eyepoppers Art Festival Gloucester – Selection Panel
rhubarb-rhubarb international portfolio festival – Portfolio Reviewer
h-Art (Hereford Art Week) – “First Exposure” exhibition and seminar for photographers professional development
2001 Fototage Internationale Festival, Herten, Germany
Curator, “Young British Photographers” exhibition; Portfolio Reviewer
Publications & Broadcasting
2011 UrbanPhotoMag online magazine – selected photographs from “Hora Lisboa 2011”
2005 Oxford University Press – Commissioned to write 14 pieces on key photographers, Hungarian and Czech photography, Exhibitions and Galleries of photography, for “The Oxford Companion to Photography”, published Oct 2005.
2004 Royal Photographic Society Contemporary Group Magazine:
“Transitions – ideas on transitions as a subject of photography”
2002 BBC TV Knowledge Channel: Photography Masterclass Programme
panel member with Eamonn McCabe
2000-2003 Numerous local radio interviews about the Hereford festival.