Glass Island, Hong Kong. 2018
I am a Bristol-based garden and plant photographer. My work reflects a lifelong love of art and nature, influenced by childhood experiences of being immersed in the wilderness followed by a career in fine art and graphic design.
Imprint of Nature.
I was born and raised in Hong Kong, a forest of concrete, yet I have countless memories of playing by the sea, exploring the jungle and interacting with the natural world. My father was born on a boat and raised in a fishing community on Grass Island and, though he left it all behind when he came of age to go and work in the city, we would always return for our holidays to relive his early years at sea.
I still have very vivid memories of those holidays spent trekking through the forest, which was so dense we had to cut our way through with a sickle, to reach a grassy hillside, where we would face the ocean, feel the breeze on our skin and listen to the sounds of the wild cattle as they grazed. At night we would sail a small boat out to sea and marvel at the starry sky above us and the glowing water below us, which shone fluorescent blue thanks to clouds of bioluminescent plankton. These were the most precious and enchanting moments of my life.
Such encounters with the natural world gave me a deep love of nature in all its forms (plants, trees, stones, earth… everything) and this has profoundly impacted how I view my everyday world. I took the opportunity to explore our relationship with nature through my bachelor and master’s degrees in Fine Art and as my studies progressed, my work even became poetic as I sought to only ever use naturally-occurring materials.
Glass Island, Hong Kong. 2015
From There to Here.
Studies came and went and the years flew by. As my career took off I was drawn into a world of ever-increasing promises, targets and pressures that gradually took me further and further away from my original passions. I eventually found myself in a lifeless cycle: work, sleep, repeat. As a result, in 2019 my wife and I decided to make a change and explore something new. This led to us travelling to London and taking a floristry course together at the London Flower School. When we returned to Hong Kong, we decided to take a leap of faith and start our own floral design company. However, with growing political unrest followed by the covid pandemic, even as we were establishing our new business we realised that our city was fast becoming a place we couldn’t recognise. After two years of struggle and preparation, my wife and I relocated to the UK, a country with an air of freedom.
Drawn to the wonderful natural landscape and gardens here, we threw ourselves into volunteering in our local community garden. As her passion deepened, my wife began studying garden design and horticulture and we travelled across the country, keen to experience everything this new landscape could offer. That initial year of exploration rekindled my love of art, and inspired me to throw myself into garden and plant photography.
My professional qualifications in Fine Art have trained me to see things in a unique and artistic way. When it comes to taking photos, I am amazed at how modern automated lenses have opened up the natural world to us all over again, offering incredible precision and an extraordinary level of detail. Equally, as a lover of manual and vintage lenses I also really enjoy framing atmospheric images by gazing directly through the glass of my lens. My pictures are carefully curated compositions which carefully balance light and shadow, definition and blur.
I work with all levels of requests - from formal to informal, broad and sweeping concepts to very specific briefs. I tend to work with garden designers, gardeners and landscaping businesses, documenting plants and gardens, but am always interested in hearing from those who are curious about my work. To commission, collaborate or connect, please do contact me via my contact page.
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Master of Cultural Studies / Lingnan University, 2015.
Master of Fine Art / Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, 2011.
Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) with Distinction / Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, 2007.
Diploma in Fine Arts (Concentration: Fine Arts – photography, ceramics) / Hong Kong Art School, 2004.
Certificate in Arts Studies (Visual and Applied Arts) / Hong Kong Art School, 2002.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London. 2019
Blaise Community Garden, Bristol. 2022
Blaise Community Garden, Bristol. 2022
