I was born in the Netherlands; my dad was a keen photographer and I’m sure his passion rubbed off. My first camera was a 1964 Beirette, a manual viewfinder 35mm (film-)camera with a 45mm f2.9 lens. At the time I wanted to become a photographer.

The boy next door had a dark-room. He was happy to share the cost of chemicals, and together we mastered the messy art of dark-room developing and printing. My friend did indeed become a professional photographer.

In 1984 and with a young family I moved to New Zealand. A career in finance and business followed, including extensive travel and periods of working in the UK, Germany and China.

For a while photography took a backseat, until in 2010 I bought a Leica M9, a fully manual rangefinder camera that in many ways took me back to where I first started, but with the benefits (and arguably draw-backs) of digital.

In 2013 I was able to semi-retire and return to my passion for photography, and over the past 15+ years I have created a portfolio of photos to form the basis for several series and two books.