Like many of my peer group who didn’t go straight to university – and in part to escape working with my father for a while, I enrolled in a one-year HNC in Media Studies at Perth College. I managed to get in thanks to a strong photography portfolio, bought myself a set of Rotring pens, and set off on what became a year of self-discovery.
Although I’d arrived with photography as my main focus, I quickly became frustrated with the standard of the college facilities (I’d been spoiled at home with access to a full colour darkroom). Instead, I found myself drawn to graphic arts, and it was there that I encountered my first Apple Mac. I was initially wary of the technology – even requiring help to boot it up and shut it down – but I was perfectly comfortable setting type, printing it out, and then resizing it in the darkroom using a repro camera. For reasons I can’t quite explain, I set everything at 24pt! Those early skills would later set me up for a seven-year career in newspaper production, which I enjoyed immensely.
Around this time I was rarely without a camera. I’d begun favouring a more documentary approach to photography, which felt very different from the commissioned work I’d done previously. I still really like this frame, captured early one morning on my way into college. Just a simple moment, but one that now feels like it belongs to a simpler time… probably from the very late 80s or early 90s – it was a long time ago!
