In the summer of 1987 I opened a magazine and saw Elliott Erwitt’s ‘Great Dane Legs, Boots and Chihuahua’ for the first time. I was mesmerised. Shortly after that my mum bought me a second hand 35mm camera (thank you Mum), and I went to art college to study graphic design and photography. I occasionally made some ‘OK’ photographs, but it took my naive and impatient 16-year-old self a long time to realise that candid photography was much, much harder than Elliot Erwitt made it look. Since then photography has always been a part of my life, sometimes being immersed in it (building my own darkrooms and printing my own work) while other times my cameras have gathered dust or been sold to pay for other things. In 2016, after a 15 year hiatus and a chance visit to Arles, I rekindled my commitment to photography. I’m still plugging away.