About Me

My grandfather loved photography. He didn’t live long enough to see me take it up, but I’m sure that my family encouraged my new hobby so wholeheartedly because of his interest in it.

Between him and my Godfather, someone was always around with a camera to record our family lives. The children would be told to stand still while camera settings were adjusted, and the adults would patiently stand with a fixed grin on their faces. But somehow this early experience didn’t dampen my enthusiasm.

I took up photography seriously when I was 20. That’s when I bought my first “real” camera. I fell in love with portraits, food photography, and shooting male glamour and fashion models.

I later got a full time job working as a product photographer. I can’t say that I loved every minute of the long days and the commute into London, but it sure did teach me an awful lot about both business and taking great pictures.

More recently I’ve been studying at university to complete two History of Art degrees. My Masters by Research (a 30,000-word thesis that was an original contribution to academic knowledge) focussed on the engineering marvel that is videogames. I am in awe of the way that lines of code on a screen can make us feel genuine emotions. We laugh, we cry, and we tell stories based on digital fantasy.

Currently, my freelance work takes me between photographing people and products, and writing for photography blogs and magazines. I adore teaching people about photography and sharing their joy as they see their own work improve and their sense of self-belief increase.

Alongside my freelance work, I’m researching a PhD in History of Art at Oxford Brookes. I tell people that I’m doing it just so that I can make everyone called me “doctor”, but really I’m doing it because I just love researching art. My thesis is on military masculinity in the portraits of the eighteenth-century artist Joshua Reynolds.

If you share my love of art and photography and you’d like to work with me then drop me a line. I’d love to meet you and see how we could collaborate. I am available for commercial photography in Oxfordshire and beyond, photography at public events, private commissions, product photography, and shoots with magazines and book publishers. Of course, if you’re looking for Banbury photography then give me a shout – that’s where I’m currently based and I love nothing more than being able to walk to a job!

Charlie.