I grew up in the small town of Yeadon near Leeds in a large, often-impoverished but happy family. I remember at age 8, standing in a line-up with my friends as my Father framed up a photo, thinking "this looks really unnatural and boring", so I put my arm around the shoulder of the kid next to me and pointed at something imaginary in the distance in the hope that my Dad would take the picture in a "spontaneous, caught-off-guard" moment. It's my first recollection of trying to capture "authentic" humanity in a photo.

Eventually, my photography passion became an integral part of my identity, but several years ago, with digital cameras and YouTube tutorials turning EVERYBODY into a talented photographer, I needed to stretch my wings and started to make the exciting upgrade from stills to video.

It took several years to expand my filmmaking horizons into shooting narrative short films with real life actors, but as complicated and daunting as the process was, it felt like home.