Uploaded June 2017 | Updated September 2026, 46 minutes ago
This video is part of a very personal story. I wasn't sure if I was going to post it, but felt that I wanted to/needed to. It isn't a video about photography as such, but rather a glimpse into what photography means to me, and partly why I want to now pursue it as a career.
When I went out on a shoot to Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire to photograph the Thames landscape, I was suddenly reminded of a difficult moment last year. As I sat there, trying to process my thoughts, I felt compelled to pull out the camera and start recording.
My mum was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2014, and underwent several cycles of treatment which she found extremely traumatic. After a very brief period of remission, the cancer returned aggressively, treatment was no longer having an effect, and she sadly passed away in September last year.
For over two years I struggled to deal with her diagnosis, her illness, and how the treatment affected her, and there was very little else that occupied my mind. It was a truly devastating period and very few people really know how badly it affected me. I was unhappy at work, I was unhappy at home and everything seemed hopeless, but I have found that photography, something I have always loved, allows me to reflect and clear my mind, and now that I have begun to recover from the turmoil of the last few years, I have realised that you can take action to regain happiness, and that happiness for me is to break away from a corporate office life that I didn't enjoy, to pursue something that I love.
It's too easy to walk on by and miss the beauty that the world has to offer. I love photography because it makes you as the photographer stop and admire the beauty that surrounds us everyday. To produce an image that allows you to make others stop and see that beauty too is something that I want to pass on to the world.
Photography has reminded me that the world is a beautiful place, and I want to make sure that others don't forget like I had.
Thanks for watching.
This video is part of a very personal story. I wasn't sure if I was going to post it, but felt that I wanted to/needed to. It isn't a video about photography as such, but rather a glimpse into what photography means to me, and partly why I want to now pursue it as a career.
When I went out on a shoot to Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire to photograph the Thames landscape, I was suddenly reminded of a difficult moment last year. As I sat there, trying to process my thoughts, I felt compelled to pull out the camera and start recording.
My mum was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2014, and underwent several cycles of treatment which she found extremely traumatic. After a very brief period of remission, the cancer returned aggressively, treatment was no longer having an effect, and she sadly passed away in September last year.
For over two years I struggled to deal with her diagnosis, her illness, and how the treatment affected her, and there was very little else that occupied my mind. It was a truly devastating period and very few people really know how badly it affected me. I was unhappy at work, I was unhappy at home and everything seemed hopeless, but I have found that photography, something I have always loved, allows me to reflect and clear my mind, and now that I have begun to recover from the turmoil of the last few years, I have realised that you can take action to regain happiness, and that happiness for me is to break away from a corporate office life that I didn't enjoy, to pursue something that I love.
It's too easy to walk on by and miss the beauty that the world has to offer. I love photography because it makes you as the photographer stop and admire the beauty that surrounds us everyday. To produce an image that allows you to make others stop and see that beauty too is something that I want to pass on to the world.
Photography has reminded me that the world is a beautiful place, and I want to make sure that others don't forget like I had.
Thanks for watching.
