30/03/2026
It was great to be invited to attend the launch event of Thames & Hudson's new book 'The Art of the Book: 75 years of Thames & Hudson'. It was even more flattering to find a double page spread on me in it.
Swiftly casting aside the necessary passage of time that makes me part of a history book I'm posting some photos from those fantastic early projects which started me in my career - all of course shot on film (all fuji provia and velvia if anyone is interested...)
1 - 'Albi Cathedral' from 'Brick, A World History' (with text by James W.P. Campbell) which was an attempt to describe the oppressive scale of this cathedral/citadel built as part of the surpression of the Cathar heresy and begun after the Albigensian Crusade in 1282
2 - 'The Ark, Bukhara' also from 'Brick, A World History' was a structure we happened upon rather than went to find (there were no smart phones then). We were in Bukhara to shoot what is, in my view, the world's best brick building, the 'Tomb of the Saminids' the tiny 10th century mausoleum which is such a brilliant piece of design that no photograph does it justice.
3 - The Fairbanks House, Dedham, Mass. (from 'Architecture in Wood') The oldest surviving New England farmhouse from c.1637. I shot this house in December and was grateful to be lent an additional coat by the owner as I'd started to turn blue and it reminded me what a shock Joseph Fayerbanke and his contemporaries would have found the first Massachusetts winter after the comparatively temperate British climate.
4 - Borgund Stave Church, Norway c.1150. The only Norwegian stave church w ith an unaltered medieval appearance replete with dragon finials which I shot one early July when the darkest it got was twilight. (also from 'Architecture in Wood')
5 - Airbus engineers leaving The Final Assembly Hall of the A380 in Toulouse. Sadly today this building churns out A321neos, nice enough aircraft but not A380s. (From 'Big Shed')
6 - Lufthansa Technik Hangar in Munich where A330s and A340s are serviced, also from 'Big Shed'
7 - Santa Maria della Consolazione, Todi, Italy, begun in 1508 is a wonderful example of a greek-cross planned classical church and since it fits so well with the principles of Bramante it's often attributed to him. The design proved so much more popular with Renaissance architects than Renaissance priests that they are comparatively rare. (From 'World Architecture: The Masterworks')
