I lived with Kenji Matsuda over a two year period from 2016 - 2018. Through the personal experiences of Matsuda san, this documentary tells the story of survival and adaptation of one of the indigenous people of Japan and shows the effects of how the new laws imposed by the Japanese at the time instilled a lasting shame in the Ainu people due to their cultural heritage.

Matsuda san, known as ‘Master’ (which roughly translates to Boss in English) to his family, colleagues and patrons, has grown up sandwiched between two generations of Ainu which have very different attitudes towards their heritage. Whilst his grandparent’s generation encouraged their children and grandchildren to assimilate for fear of discrimination and being held back, recent generations have started to demand recognition of their indigenous status, which was finally given in February 2019.

Whether you work in an office or on stage, portraits tell your unique story. I have shot portraits for people from all walks of life and am passionate about bringing out the best in all my clients. Portrait shoots have no specific format and can be done on a location of your or my choice. Contact me here to speak about any questions or ideas you might have about portrait shoots.

Portraits of sufferers of Bladder cancer taken for UK based charity ‘Fight Bladder Cancer’ - the only UK based bladder cancer charity.

From India to Nepal , Japan (where I lived for 8years), Thailand to The Philippines…and a few days in Singapore, I rarely leave home without a camera as I never know who I might meet. Street photography and in particular street portraits is what started me on the path of photography and along with travel it is still my main passion.

I covered the Himalayan Rush Triathlon 2017 as the main photographer and also the 2017 Asian Enduro Series, whilst probably not as much fun as being in the races, I love searching out the best spots for photos in these huge lansdscapes and capturing the spirit of the event.

..looking back at my life at the age of 62, I thought my life was something runaway. Runaway all the time runaway, runaway from my bossy brother, and runaway from family at the age of 16. I came up to Tokyo and found a job and went to night school. After that when I finished night school I got a job as a sales person and worked for 5 years selling general merchandise 7 days a week. I got fed up with it and at that time (1973) there was some kind of boom for young people to go overseas, so I followed the trend and took off from Japan to go to Europe. Then I ended up in England. I went across Siberia on train and aeroplane, so that was a kind of runaway again.

I just stayed on in England and after 10 years I again ran away from England. I found a Japanese girlfriend and I thought I want to make a life with her in Japan. I went back to Japan first but we lost contact after several months, I didn’t see her again. I couldn’t readjust to life in Japan when I came back. I found myself very useless. Everytime I found a job I soon get fed up with it and leave it again and my life was a repetition of that style. Every job I found was not really what I wanted to do and then I went for gambling. I didn’t do much in my life.

So when I look back at my life, my life was running away, escaping or something. When I became homeless I thought where can I escape from now? I thought the only place is above in heaven…or hell, whichever it is. I thought (about) my life and thought I must make myself something useful. What have I got? I wondered. I’ve got my body, my life, I mean my biological life, so I thought I’m going to use my body and found Sokerissa dancing, I found something to focus on .

I was a fatalist and a bit of an opportunist. Of course I regret a lot..why didn’t I think for the future when I was young? what I really wanted to do…I should have really given it consideration. Definitely I should have gone for marriage because I believe that human life, the ultimate cause of human life is to carry on and hand down the life, but I didn’t do that…

I think the 2 most important affairs for humans, one is to hand down life just like any other creature and the other thing is to hand down information. Information is a kind of soul. The soul is an amalgamation of all the human wisdom I think. The soul is developing. I am not religious but I believe in god. Why it has got to be Christ I wonder? Christ is reality, god is abstract, that’s what connects him with god and to me..’

We Are London is a personal project telling the story of my favourite capital city through the lives of the people that make it what it is. Partly inspired by Brexit, I felt the need to show what it is that I love about London - a city whose identity is based on the diversity of cultures and the harmony that exists between Londoners and make the capital unique in my eyes.

My work has been featured in publications including Travel 360 - Air Asia, Lava Magazine and Tokyo Weekender.