Name: Chris Scholes

Age: 24

Place of birth: Blackpool, England.

I took an initial interest in photography when I received my first camera at the age of twelve. The camera was fully automated, and I quickly felt restricted by its possibilities. At 14 I received a manual SLR camera for my birthday. The increased control combined with the range of lenses available encouraged me to adopt photography as a serious hobby. I enjoyed entering competitions, and in 1991 I won a merit award in the ‘Young Amateur Photographer of the Year’.

It wasn’t until my late teens that I began to consider pursuing a career in photography. I started a national diploma photography course in 1996 with the intention of improving my photography skills. During my time on the course I became aware of the many opportunities available to professional photographers. This convinced me that it would be worth taking a BA degree. I applied to the Blackpool course due to its excellent reputation, and was fortunate enough to be accepted. I will complete my studies in July 2001.

My work experience includes working in a bank, a library, at a dog track and perhaps more relevantly at Colin Thomas’s studio. Colin owns a digital studio based in London, and working with him enabled me to gain a valuable insight in to how the industry works. The vast majority of my own imagery is produced digitally, and as a result my most useful skills are computer oriented.

Recently, I have taken much of my inspiration from ancient Japanese artwork. Most significantly their ability to reduce complex forms to their bare, natural elements. Through the use of computers I render out the bulk of information in my photographs so that a simplified variation of the image is realised. The aesthetic effect of my imagery could be described as illustrative in appearance. For this reason I believe that my style could be well suited to producing posters and book covers. Hence I intend to offer my services to these markets as a freelance photographer.

I am also interested in becoming a part time photography teacher involved in further education. I believe that working in an academic environment would keep me mentally stimulated, and encourage me to continue producing creative work. Therefore my next intention in is to obtain an MPhil in order to support this goal.