San Vincente del Mar, Galicia, Spain. December 2002.

When the Prestige oil tanker sank, fully laden, off the coast of Galicia in north eastern Spain her cargo soon showed up on the beaches and the rocky coast. I’d never witnessed an oil recovery operation before and I was amazed by the ‘one handful at a time’ nature of the thing. This gentleman had just spent the whole day picking lumps of crude oil off the rocks by hand. His expression says to me ‘I know a little about the true cost of oil’.

Fré Jaake, Painter, Valencia. May 2002.

This was taken in Fré’s studio during what I think of as his ‘cathedrals’ period. He would pin large sheets of canvas up directly on the wall, not bothering with a stretcher, and just get stuck in with a lump of charcoal. He worked very quickly and often within a day he would already have a lot of paint down. There was no source material around that I could see – these amazing Gothic interiors came straight out of his head.

Walking to work, Western Romania. October 2004.

This was taken at dawn from a moving train travelling across southern Romania. I love train travel, and the slower the trains the better. Sadly many countries are now replacing their old carriages, in which you could open the windows and take pictures, with the modern, air-conditioned, quiet, high-speed variety. In Romania they don’t even bother to close the doors on the carriages, so you can hang right out with your camera and the whole landscape is your subject.

Walking to work, Sudbahnhof, Vienna. October 2003.

Train stations are one of the staples of a photographer’s visual diet. Many people moving past your lens, just passing through, thinking only of where they are going or who they are going to meet and hardly aware of their environment. Sadly many stations now employ staff who’s sole job appears to be telling anyone who pulls out a camera that pictures are forbidden.