Paul Biddle

 I originally wanted to be a painter but I was terrible at drawing and luckily whilst I was at art school I was taught the basics of black and white photography. So photography did the drawing for me and I have never looked back.My passion is for making images. Photography is the medium I work with - I really believe in understanding the technique so that it becomes transparent and the image shines through.I have two main ways of creating an image:

 An idea pops into my head and I make a drawing in my ridiculous child-like style. 
I then try to find the objects, people or backgrounds or I build and paint a set.
Once it is constructed in my studio I look and look at it and decide on composition and lighting. I like to let the arrangement sit for a couple of days - it’s almost as if the objects enjoy their playful juxtapositions.
 The way I work is by assembling some objects or themes that fascinate me at the time.  I then deliberately try not to be specific or to choose meanings to portray.  I call this time my ‘playtime’: it’s a time I need to be alone with the image, and it’s the time when things begin to happen quite unconsciously. At this stage I like to work quietly with no interruptions, I make the composition, then use a spot of light to shape the forms into an image. Then follows endless deliberation and honing of the picture, I like to pare it down to it’s essentials and suddenly the dynamic is there and the image sits well as if it has always existed