‘Things aren’t always as mother reports’ is a long-term photographic study of my sons. It consists of colour portraits and landscapes made in the documentary style. 

In the knowledge that photography sometimes reveals what isn’t always apparent; I made my sons the subject of my work in the hope that I might get to know them in a different way. 

Being their dad and the photographer creates a distinct, constantly shifting power dynamic; our shared engagement in the picture making enables me to explore the idea of agency in portraiture.

If the basic action depicted in a portrait is the sitter’s presentation of themselves, then perhaps these photographs serve to record a version of our communication and our relationship outside of our daily routine. The portraits seek to raise questions in the mind of the viewer as to what these boys are about, what they are thinking, feeling and why? 

Like any parent I’m concerned about external influences on my children, the things that as their dad are beyond my control. I am keen to observe how the place and time in which they live affects them. I’ve paid close attention to how they navigate their world and where they sit within it. These pictures provide a glimpse into the boys. They also communicate the concerns of the photographer.

The cumulative effect of these pictures transcend a father’s deeply personal experience to communicate something more universal about boys growing up in the UK today. 

“The sudden anguish of missing what is no longer there is like suddenly coming across a jar which has fallen and broken into fragments. Alone you collect the pieces, discover how to fit them together and then carefully stick them to one another, one by one. Eventually the jar is reassembled but it is not the same as it was before. It has become both flawed and more precious. Something comparable happens to the image of a loved place or a loved person when kept in the memory after separation.”

– John Berger, ‘The Fayum Portraits’, The Shape of a Pocket.