About Me

This is a short profile of myself and my photography.
My interest in photography started when my Mother bought me an instamatic camera for my birthday in the late 1970’s. At sixth-form college I took GCSE Photography and spent many hours inside their darkroom as well as learning about the history of photography

As the years went by I just took photos on holiday or out with friends, but even one these occasions my creative eye always led me to look for different angles or techniques and I always enjoyed the experience. Whilst one holiday in the Lake District in 2006, my Mother, who spotted my talents, suggested I take photography a bit more seriously. I immediately thought was a great idea and wondered why I hadn’t thought of it myself. A few weeks later I bought a camera and a book of photography techniques and dusted down my old tripod

A year prior to this I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at 35. I had a tremor since 2001 and with a combination of misdiagnosis from GP’s and my own predilection to ignore it and hope it would go away on its own, took until 2005 to finally start the medication I needed.

My reaction to the medication was disrupted sleep during the night and obsessive behaviour. This was not particularly good for my working life, but great for my photography. I started taking lots of photos of the dawn all over Leicestershire. Sometimes the dawn would be a beautiful array of yellows, oranges, reds and purples. On other occasions I would find myself in the middle of a field on a cold grey dawn wondering why I had bothered. My rationale was that if there was any chance of a good photo to be taken I had to be there to capture it.

Reinforcement also came when a photo of the small waterfall in Bradgate Park submitted for the Mervyn Peake award in 2007 was selected for the following year’s calendar for the month of November.

I decided I wanted to learn about photography in a more structured way and began a 2 year HNC course in Photography at Leicester College. This course has been difficult, especially working a full time job, but totally rewarding. My photography has developed insurmountably because the course has challenged me to produce work I would never have done under my own steam. The course finished in June 2009 with a final project exhibition at the West End Gallery in Leicester.

I no longer work full-time, instead I enjoy the freedom to work with photography at my own pace.

Richard Cox