PHOTOGRAPHER + PSYCHOLOGIST + EDUCATOR | BIRMINGHAM (UK)
Photography first made an impression on me in primary school, when I took a picture of someone using a pinhole camera I built from black cardboard and a milk-bottle top. From that early experience, two lifelong interests emerged: making images and understanding people.
This website brings those interests together. Here, you can view photographic stories of everyday life, read psychological insights on contemporary social issues, and learn skills to support academic success—alongside exploring how photography can support wellbeing.
My career, however, was anything but straightforward. I began as a cricket bat maker for Gray-Nicolls, before completing an apprenticeship in carpentry and joinery with William Ellis. After being made redundant, I changed direction. Having left secondary school with few qualifications, I spent a year teaching myself psychology, biology, and maths to gain entry into higher education. I went on to study psychology and neuroscience at Keele University, driven by a growing fascination with human behaviour and its biological basis.
After graduating, I continued my studies at University College London (reading neuroscience), before working at Oxford University using MRI to explore how the brain supports creativity. I later completed a PhD in psychology at the University of Birmingham, where I used EEG to investigate how the brain supports thinking and performance in neurological conditions.
I am now an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Birmingham, where I teach, supervise, write, and contribute to public engagement and academic leadership. For over twenty years, my research has examined how thought and action arise from neural processes—and how we can enhance them.
Alongside this, I developed a photography business during my doctoral studies, completing over 500 assignments and gaining international recognition. My images have appeared in leading publications, and I have worked at prestigious venues. I also wrote a practical guide on how to take better photos. Over time, my interest in understanding people drew me to documentary photography.
Today, my creative practice focuses on long-term documentary projects, often using 35mm film, to explore how we live through the spaces people inhabit and the traces they leave behind, alongside a growing interest in photography’s therapeutic potential.
Across both photography and psychology, I am motivated by the same underlying aim: to explore how we live—through images and ideas.
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