About

I was born in London, UK and moved to Canada when I was a young lad. We lived in Inglewood, Ontario, a rural setting with a few acres where my brother, sister and I ran wild. My father’s first job in Canada was with Kodak and there were always cameras and carousels of Kodachrome around the house.

I was often given different types of cameras and film to experiment with as a child, which I adored greatly. My photography teacher from high school, Mr. Francisco, was one of my early influences as well. He taught me about the properties of light, the basic camera mechanics, and photo printing, all while encouraging my early artistic development.

Throughout my youth I was continually rinsed in Northern Ontario. My parents would take my siblings and I on long hikes along the Bruce Trail, spend our summers along the cold lakes of the Canadian Shield, and be pulled out of bed to watch the stars and the northern lights. This continued into my early adulthood; tree planting off the shores of Lake Superior, canoe tripping in our provincial parks, and skiing as far as my legs would take me.

But as life got busier, the pull of the city lashed me to a revolving collection of desks and boardrooms and the years pressed on. However, one day I had what I can only describe as a call of the wild: while waiting in my car for a traffic light to change, the windows up tight, I heard the distinct call of a White-throated sparrow ring out in my ears. It shook me and awakened northern memories and senses that had long been dulled by the clamour of the city. So now I return to the north and wild spaces as often as I can, for which my life and lens has benefited greatly.

My work looks to reunite these two worlds that occupy my life, exploring the beauty of urban and rural settings and circumstances, and its interconnectivity with nature. I look to reconcile the vagaries of memory with our need to make narrative sense of things, and mend our troubled relationship with the natural world.

I’m inspired by the work of conservationists and wildlife experts as keen observers of nature, and embrace their scientific observational techniques to help broaden the dialogue around conservancy and environmental protection.

I am driven by my sense of helplessness, distance, and remoteness from the current plight of nature, and continue to surround myself with it, be informed by it, and bathe in it.

Finn