About this website

Thank you for taking time to have a look at my website, which I think more of a working studio than a polished gallery. Yes, there are plenty of images to look at in the images section, but in the rest of the site (the working area if you like), there will be stuff about the techniques I use, my inspirations and what I am currently up to. So there should always be something new to look at and read. The place to start is my blog, which will have my latest work and other thoughts and news about photography and art. New images will also be posted in the Recent Work gallery.

About Joined Up pictures

I take pictures to try to capture the wonder of life, the significance of things, and our place in this world. This means that many of my pictures reflect in some way the cycles of life in a personal or metaphorical way. I’m interested in the way an image can be a distillation of that wonder and can intensify the emotion one feels beholding it. I’m really interested in the way we perceive things, first in the way we look at objects, and secondly, how we build a memory.

A first mode might be called the intense stare, where something fills your attention and is gazed upon for more than a fleeting second. This can give a startling experience when it happens, and usually concerns objects that close and closely observed. This has been my primary way of looking for images for many years now and forms the bulk of my work.

In recent years I have experimented with the construction of Joiners, first popularised by David Hockney and subsequently developed into the Still Films of Noel Myles. An essential part of these mosaic pictures is that each frame is taken from a different viewpoint, and, obviously, a different time. This seems to be very similar to the way we build up our own three-dimensional picture of the world with views from many perspectives to create a memory that we carry in our heads and can recall with our mind’s eye. More recently I’ve been working on layered pictures. As with the joiners, they are made up of images shot from different viewpoints, but instead are transparently layered on top of each other. These pictures too can be shot and edited in different ways and are very much a work in progress at the moment.

About ME

I first came to photography in 1980 when I was a student, and was amazed to see how something as simple as a photograph could be interesting, expressive and beautiful. Ever since that time I have been trying to make photos that meet those criteria and share them with others. In 1987 I was a founding member of the Image workshop in Southampton and in 2006 became a member of the well-known Arena group.  Throughout this period I have exhibited my work at many venues in the south of England. Nowadays, the main forum for my work is the website and my blog, Joined Up Pictures.

In my professional career I have worked as an engineer in high technology companies, first in the computer industry, then running my own consultancy, and now as a manager in the space industry. Married with three children, I live in Winchester, UK.

Graham Dew