About Me

So long has my fascination for looking at photographs been that I cannot remember a time before it. My actual photography started (like many mothers) with capturing the rapid changes in the development of my two sons. At home and as we travelled I photographed almost everything and anything. Also like so many others, photography had to be fitted around the demands of being wife, mother, working day and so on.

The change in my approach and opportunities really developed when I moved from England to Sweden. I had time to pursue my passion of photography but more importantly found a place and subjects that moved me. Never before had I experienced such a range of light and color as seen during the year in the arctic.

Summer brings with it 24 hour daylight and the midnight sun along with, what seems like, limitless flora and fauna. Autumn skies bring the most amazing sunsets I have experienced anywhere . Midwinter only holds 2 – 3 hours of daylight but what light! Blue light of Polar Night. The cold temperatures herald the possibility of the whole sky, and snow cover, being bathed in pink light. The disappearing sun and reappearing sun give totally different kinds of light. Details of winter landscape. But my passion has become trying to capture the Northern Lights on film. The whole of the first year in Porjus was spent photographing everything that was so new to me.

I use Canon EOS 5 camera bodies with canon lenses 20 mm 2.8, 28 – 135 mm IS, 100 – 400 mm IS and 90 mm Tamron macro lens. I use mostly Fuji Velvia and Provia film. In Northern Lights photography I only use a Canon T90 body with Canon 55mm 1.2 lens and 400 Fuji Sensia film.

The problem them comes of how to be seen and have an avenue to display you work. This was a surprisingly simple problem to overcome. I lived in an old railway station which had many rooms. So in the summer of 1998 the first exhibition opened at the station house.

The gallery became my “shop window“. Many photographs were sold from the gallery but also I started having requests for exhibitions elsewhere. I started writing for magazines and was approached for photographs for books. I was desperate to try and convey not pictures but the feelings that I had for this amazing light and landscape that had become my new home. I started to investigate trying to put pictures and music together. I was introduced to a world famous composer who was born in the local area and he allowed me use of some of his music. I then put the appropriate photographs to the music and the result is a 11 minute journey through the year of color in the arctic “Reflections of Arctic Color“. The premier of this production was shown on a five metres high screen of snow, outside in February, which proved to be a great success. This production has been seen in many places throughout Scandinavia and a new production is now under way with a new composer.

Most of the requests for exhibitions and slide shows are based on Arctic Light and I am happy to try and share my feelings through my photographs.

I have exhibited in many locations in Gällivare kommun, Gällivare airport, Northen Lights Centre – Dundret, Ajtté - Jokkmokk, Gamla Apotek – Jokkmokk, Norbottens Museum - Luleå, Halmstad, Tröllbacken library - Tyreso kommun – Stockholm, Kemi – Finland and Cape Town – South Africa, Paris - france and Tokyo - Japan

The years passed from leaving England and settling in the north of Sweden has only scratched the surface of what I want to show through my pictures. I have now produced a book of Arctic Light and feel I could spend another 20 years here and not have done justice to the area. I do not feel it is my “job“ to be a photographer. It is my way of life – expressing how I feel about nature through my photographs.