As a child, I loved walking from my Grandad’s house to night football matches at Goodison Park, home of Everton FC. The floodlit stadium looked like a distant beacon drawing us in towards it, lighting the surrounding streets like a Hollywood film set. I still get excited now when I see distant floodlights – from Premier League stadiums to local village club grounds. Over the last 15 years I have been photographing the landscapes surrounding floodlit football club grounds at night. Instead of going inside to watch the games, I spend the 90 minutes trying to take a picture that captures the visual spectacle outside, before the referee blows the final whistle, the lights go off and the landscapes return to darkness and normality. I’ve photographed well over a hundred grounds - including all fifty floodlit grounds in Sussex
in 2004 I was passing Rotherham United FC’s old Millmoor ground while they were playing a local derby against Sheffield United. It was a tatty old ground but because the stands were so small and the floodlight pylons were so tall - the surrounding area was very brightly lit and to me it looked very photogenic. Luckily I had a tripod with me so I took a few pictures from a nearby bridge. I’ve always loved football, and in particular football grounds. The first thing I look for when visiting a new town or city is the local football stadium. When a match is going on inside a ground, I find the atmosphere in the surrounding area fascinating. For example watching an old lady pulling her shopping trolley past a large stadium with absolutely no interest in the spectacle that the crowd is excited about, along with millions watching on TV around the world.
My aim is to capture the world as it really is - unaffected by me pointing a camera at it. Most of work is made candidly, except for the Love Boat Rejects, which is a collection of pictures taken by me and my fellow photographers onboard American and Italian based cruise-ships throughout the 1990's. That was my first job when I left art college in Merseyside in 1989. I continue to take a camera everywhere I go and photograph the world out of pure interest rather than just with a view to selling my work. In recent years my personal photography has become increasingly nocturnal.