Each time I embark on a new photography project requires a series of decisions that apply constraints to the way in which I’m going to make work. Without any constraints, the options for making each picture seem endless, so the parameters I set both consciously and unconsciously aid my decision making in the moment by essentially giving me less options. It’s a fresh opportunity to assess the way in which I’m working and allows me to consider the equipment I’m using, the location, subject matter and people involved.

This process essentially eliminates many of the opportunity of chance affecting the images. It puts me in control and on an often a relatively narrow path to create what I’ve intended. This can be incredibly helpful when I’m working with people, having a structured process reduces the variables and the consistency can really aid the impact of the final set of images. The constraints also help when I’m trying to build a specific atmosphere within a body of work, particularly when editing and deciding which images to include and which images might lead the viewer away from my intended sentiments.

Last November I took a trip to Athens to take part in some workshops run by Nearest Truth. My aim had been to get feedback on existing work from the tutors, Raymond Meeks, Adrianna Ault, Tim Carpenter and Gregory Halpern, which was extremely productive.

Naturally, I began to explore the city with my camera, it felt disarming, run down and actually quite unsettling. It forced me away from my usual parameters of work, I had to push through the discomfort and embrace the chance to respond to what was in front of me, without any preconceived idea of what the pictures might look like. There is a risk to that. The pictures may well reveal more about yourself than you are normally willing to admit, but that is the point. I slowly scratched away those layers built up through years of socialisation, the shells created to protect myself from a world that demands so much and wants to hold us to higher standards than are actually possible.

As the week went on, I found my flow, the pictures just seemed to happen so naturally, so much so that I went back in March to continue what I’d begun at the end of last year. The picture below is a great example of something I wouldn’t have even considered capturing at home. Technically it’s imperfect, but there’s a narrative within it which draws me in. I want to embrace that serendipity, the opportunity to step outside my psychological structures and see where it leads me.