A Little Background

Born in Oxford and raised in Birmingham, I became interested in photography in the mid 1980s mainly due to the influence of my late great friend, Lindsay Douglas.

By the end of the 80s and throughout the early 90s I worked semi-professionally as a photographer, working with various Birmingham architects shooting projects up and down the country. Later I worked at an advertising agency and produced many photographs for use in its various media campaigns.

Following my departure from advertising I spent five years working primarily as a web designer but developed an interest in photographing young people involved in performing arts. This later resulted in working closely with Fox Hollies School, Freefall Dance Company at BRB, RDC Youth Dance Company based at DanceXchange at the Birmingham Hippodrome, MENCAP and various other youth dance/theatre projects.

If I have a style it is improvisational in that my best work comes from environments where nothing is ideal; no light, no access, but I need to get images for the client and indeed for me. I like thinking on my feet, adapting on the fly and it is this approach which allows me to produce the images I am happy to present.

In between all this I like to photograph 'interesting stuff' for the sheer hell of it. I have also been known to play drums and guitar in various bands over many years.

Info

Smethwick,
West Midlands,
UK

All images featured on this site are owned and copyright by Brendan MacLean.

Under no circumstances should these images be used without permission.