Author: Andrew Mason

As a photography-based Artist, my photographic journey has been one of self reflection, education, and creativity. I am not a photographer who meticulously plans every shoot; instead, I embrace spontaneity and serendipity and allow the photographs I capture or stumble upon to guide me, serving as the raw materials from which I sculpt my art.

As a Photography Educator and a Board member of The Royal Photographic Society (2021 to 2024), I enjoy sharing my knowledge and passion with others and was awarded the RPS President’s Medal in 2024 for my contribution to the Society.

I fell in love with photography and have been doing it since I was a teenager, starting with film and developing prints in my parents’ basement. I still remember the emotion I felt every time the image appeared on the blank paper, in the darkness illuminated by the red light…

I have travelled extensively throughout my life and continue to do so, and it has been my main source of inspiration for many years, primarily filled with distant landscapes and portraits of strangers met along the way. For a very long time, I had no desire to show my work or expose myself to the gaze of others, but I took a leap of faith in 2014 and revealed my work.

Photography has always been the gateway to the creative world for me with a strong focus on portraiture. Since 2013 I’ve been taking images of family, friends and acquaintances before I commenced a new career in graphic design in 2016. Whilst photography and design go hand in hand, being a photographer had to take a back seat whilst I focused on my design career.

I’m at the point in my creative career where I want to develop further into art direction and start taking images again with more purpose – with a story to tell, so this exhibition is a timely opportunity to push my work further.

I began my photography journey during lockdown. I would take images of flowers in the garden on my iPhone, and circulate them daily to friends and family. I would title the photographs “in the garden today”. Once lockdown was over I stopped sending photographs only to be met with abusive texts asking “where’s my daily flower?” I went back to photographing flowers on my daily walks, sometimes walking up garden paths to take a photograph of an eye catching bloom. Approximately 18 months later I bought my first proper camera. I haven’t looked back since. I juggled photography workshops and courses with my demanding job in law, but it has got right under my skin.

Ian Gutteridge is a UK-based photographer whose work captures the poetry of everyday life through light, texture, and human connection. His passion for photography began over twenty years ago with a Praktika film camera, documenting the moments of his children growing up. What began as a simple love of preserving memories evolved into a lifelong pursuit of visual storytelling.
During the quiet reflection of the COVID-19 lockdown, Ian rediscovered his passion for photography—this time through the lens of a Canon 5D Mark IV, later transitioning to a Canon R6. His body of work spans wedding, portrait, wildlife, still life and street photography, each revealing his instinct for capturing authenticity, atmosphere, and emotion. Whether it’s the elegance of a bride, the fleeting glance of a passer-by, or the dynamic energy of a marketplace, Ian’s images evoke a timeless intimacy that connects viewer and subject.

Born in South Africa and raised partly in southern England, Conrad Hechter returned to a complex, divided homeland, studying English and Geography at Stellenbosch University. After teaching in Cape Town and growing disillusioned with the political and educational climate, he left in 1984 to broaden his horizons. Travels through the Middle East, Europe, America, and Asia eventually led him to Sydney, where he studied filmmaking and photography, captivated by the extraordinary quality of Australian light. Later, he settled in California, drawn by its own unique visual heritage, continuing a lifelong engagement with place, light, and perspective.

Having devoted more time to my photography over the last year, I’m still developing my own approach and style, but I am drawn to the relationships between people and different environments, settings and activities, and how photography can use form, shape and space to frame and interpret these relationships and capture their essence. I’m based in London and this is my first exhibition.

For the London Photo Show, I decided to photograph a religious procession in southern Italy, an event I have witnessed several times before. Every September, Reggio Calabria celebrates the festival of Our Lady of Consolation with four days of traditional cultural and culinary activities. At the heart of the festival, a painting of the Madonna and Child is carried through the streets on the Vara, a processional structure 5m high and weighing 1.2t. Teams of 100 men, the Portatori, take turns in carrying the Vara the 3.5km route from its home in the Eremo Basilica in the hills through the city to the cathedral.