highton-ridley

Hello my fellow deviants,

I signed up for dA ages ago but have only really just got round to doing something with it.

Biography
=========
My first experiences with cameras were at school, where I tried and enjoyed bw photography and made good use of their darkroom. As for my stduies, I had an equal aptitude for both science and art but ended up going down the business route in my career.

I'd pick up my camera again from time to time - I've owned a couple of Zeniths and a Praktika at various times - still getting a lot of enjoyment from both the taking and in the results. But only with the onset of digital cameras did I get serious again - no messy chemicals and much more control than in the wet darkroom.

I took to it like a duck to water... I could get the sorts of end result I was after that were beyond my wet-darkroom skills back when I was a teenager messing with 35mm film, enlargers and developing baths.

Some friends in the local art community encouraged me to go public and, after having some work published in print magazines, I displayed with good success in local galleries.

The BBC took enough interest in a photo essay I did on urban decay, lost spaces and industrial ugliness,
to feature an article about it on their web site.
"His fascination with the black and white genre, interest in perspective and strong lines in his photos, truly shows Plymouth in a striking and arresting light"

In 2009 I plan to improve my portfolio, to be displayed in more galleries and to continue marketing my work both online and off.

Artist's Statement
==================
There's something raw about well-executed black and white photography that has always reached in and touched me deeply.

Colour is all fine and dandy - some shots take my breath away in their appeal to my higher senses. But it takes b&w to pluck at my more basic, primaeval instincts. I think it's that connection which attracts me to this genre.

Light/line, tone/texture, pattern/perspective and structure/abstraction; when I see these in everyday scenes and objects, all it takes is the right convergence of those factors and the right viewpoint... there's beauty to be found in the most unexpected of places.

I hope you are drawn to my work and you find something that rouses an inner response, something that you can connect with.

Publication
===========
Urban Ugly March 2008: BBC featured me and my photo essay on neglected and derelict spaces of Plymouth. www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/ar…

Rectilinear Mosaics October 07: Hotshots section, Digital Camera Magazine.

Warner Holidays used some of my images of lawn bowlers in a tv / cinema advert.

One, Two, Three, Snow! - an editor's choice in the Photographer Of The Year competition 2007.