I am a self-taught visual artist living in South Africa, using surreal photography to craft alternate worlds, rooted in reality, in which to explore the beauty and pain of human existence.

Why do I create? The honest, cut-the-bullshit answer is quite simple, because I enjoy it. Because I am human and, like you, I have the innate need to express and make sense of my internal universe. Because when I don’t create, I become depressed and uncentered.

At the age of 16, I left South Africa for the UK with my family. I struggled with depression, the question of identity and an opiate addiction for years. I discovered art as a way out.

Ever since I can remember I have always desired to evoke emotion in others and from an early age I was drawn to film. In a single frame, you can transport someone to an entirely new reality, a different level of consciousness. From age 12 I knew I wanted to somehow be involved in film and at age 21 I walked into the London Film Academy to begin my adventure into film and then promptly walked out when I found out the course fees. I decided to study photography at Southampton University but dropped out after three months to return to South Africa.

I explore topics which some have described as dark and melancholic. For me, there is no light or dark, only reality. A reality which embraces depression, the transient nature of identity, addiction and the pain of existence as part of the whole beautiful truth of life. The artworks often take on otherworldly qualities, yet are still rooted in reality. Things often don’t make sense, nothing just is, the parameters of normality are skewed. This is a reflection of the human mind and ultimately the human experience.

Turning the formless into form, imagination into reality, crafting a thing of beauty to evoke an emotion in others is what inspires me, and I often draw on music, film and other artists such a Brooke Shaden, Lara Zankoul and Laura Makabresku.

I have exhibited at ImageNation, Paris and the Hilton Arts Festival, South Africa. Currently, I am collaborating on the book A lighter Way of Being with best-selling author Di Smith, due to be published early 2019.