If I’d known how hard it would be at the beginning
I probably wouldn't have done it.
I think you have to be kind of romantic in some sense
to do a project like this.
Every night I thought I couldn’t continue –
but every morning you sleep and you re-evaluate and you do continue.
I'm a Fine Art and Architectural photographer,
and I’m doing a long walk around the coast of Britain called The Perimeter
1 CAMERA
2 LENSES
413 DAYS
10,034 km
At the start of the project I hoped to capture
some of the history and mystery of this island.
And as the walk has evolved it’s become more about
capturing the wildness of this island.
For this project, there’s lots of different challenges.
I’ve found that often the most dramatic light
is under really poor conditions,
After I’ve been shooting often the camera is covered
in sand or covered in rain,
and I just need to be able to concentrate on shooting.
I’m obsessive about weight,
but one area I couldn’t compromise on was my choice of camera,
because I print large prints to sell,
I needed a high resolution camera,
I needed robust lenses, I needed waterproofing.
Inevitably after walking outside for 400 days
things do go wrong, and the camera has taken a battering.
I had a front element smashed and replaced.
My camera has been repaired about four or five times
and it’s still going.
I carry a 70-300mm telephoto lens
and a 16-35mm wide angle lens,
that means that I can interpret any landscape
in an amazing number of different ways.
I think a lot about geometry, a lot about composition.
I do like very abstract seascapes and I'm also very interested in industry and infrastructure because it's a
non-sentimental portrayal of the British landscape.
There’s a genius to the process of walking because it allows
you to slow down enough for unexpected
moments to reveal themself to you.
It’s the unexpected beauty that continues to drive me,
that I never quite know what’s beyond that next headland and
that unexpected discovery is very motivating.
About 12 years ago I had meningitis
and I struggled to walk across the room.
When I got better enough to do a long walk I thought of
the gentlest, lowest risk walk I could do and that was
walking the Thames, from the source to London.
Surprisingly because I was more contemplative and
I was going slower, I produced better work.
Each project, the boundaries become higher,
so when you start off maybe walking 100 miles
that seems a big challenge, then 500 seems a big challenge,
then 1000. You become more confident pushing the boundaries.
I've had a split tendon, I've had shin splints,
I've had all kinds of aches and pains.
I'm by myself, often not seeing anyone for five or six days.
So hypothermia is a continual problem.
You’re pounded all the time by the weather,
gale force winds are more normal than not.
Regardless of the weather, I’ll be walking through it
and I’ll be photographing in it.
When you get into shelter you feel this sort of silence in
your skull because the wind isn’t battering your head any more.
This experience is a deeply calming experience on a profound
level in one’s soul,
but also I try and convey that with pictures –
I like to have pictures to be silent and still and calm, because
for me that is what this seascape world,
this in-between world is about.
I can’t imagine my life without walking so I’m sure
there’ll be other journeys.
Quite where they take me, I’m not sure yet.