(This article was originally written 15/09/25)

Today marks a monumental turning point and I have decided to pick up the pen and put fingers to keys. For anyone who doesn't know me I am a photographer and my work had always centered around censorship and freedom. my experience over the last twenty years has been an eternal battle between these two themes and I will write about it with an uncompromising view that may or may not offend you.

I will talk about my early years within the world of photography why it picked me like a stray cat and never left my side. I will also talk about my lost years in London as an assistant photographer, a studio assistant and when I once made a magazine.

Life is full of stories and I want to share them with you because I believe they will be a force for good especially in an era where rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, isolation and loss of purpose have reached extreme levels, particularly in the west, contributing to a loss of spirituality and neo-nihilism.

Being a photographer is a long, hard, lonely road. Full of reward, disappointment, set backs, learning and self discovery. Real photographers never retire, they never give up, never surrender and that's conclusive of a highly disciplined mindset that can not be manufactured by bad actors out for narrative control. I belong to the oldest part of the Millennial cohort and I grew up in age of highly manufactured mediocrity. It's time we strived to do better, aim for excellence, inspire others to do the same and lift each other up as individuals.

It's also time to end the insidious era of woke group-think and start to think critically again with strong independent minds whilst being tethered to reality. We live in a period of militant cancel culture where certain people are celebrating death with glee. Freedom of speech is being restricted and writers can be arrested when they walk on British soil.

Now is the time to speak up and not be silent because ideas, imagination, beauty, life, meritocracy and innovation do matter for our survival.