I am a self-taught photographer based in Nottingham, UK. My photography explores the relationship between work, leisure and landscape in post-industrial communities. I am drawn to subjects that reflect my experiences as the son of a coal miner growing up in Mansfield, a former mining town in the industrial English midlands. Depictions of these kinds of communities often focus on deprivation and hardship. But while it’s important not to gloss over the corrosive effects of deindustrialisation, I’m more interested in making photographs, borne out of familiarity and affection, that celebrate the cultural life of working class people. When photographing parts of the country that have seen industrial decline, many photographers in the past have fallen into the trap of representing people merely as visual tokens of poverty. It is easy for the privileged eye to define people by what they do not have, rather than what they share in. Instead, I ask myself “What makes this person who they are?” The answer is, of course, their passions and hobbies, beliefs and relationships with others. This is always my guiding principle when making my work.