Welcome to my story so far...

My name's Phil Cook and this is the story of my artists journey, so far.

I was born with a paint brush & pencils in my hand, from as far back as I can remember, I loved to create images. I spent my junior school years, literally just drawing and painting.

I started adult oil painting classes, when I was 10 years old & here it is, my very first oil painting.

My mum still has it on her bedroom wall, along with a few others I painted at the time.

While attending adult oil painting classes at 10yrs old, this was my first attempt at painting with oils, Song Thrush / 1981

I passed my O level Art ahead of my classmates, one year early. It had never been achieved before in my school.

In 1989, I attended my local art college, where I went to complete the general art & design, ordinary national diploma, so I could then go on to study a degree in Fine Art.

As part of the general art course, there was a graphics section, part of which was a three day introduction to photography. We shot black & white, then processed the film in a daylight tank, before developing a contact sheet.

What can I say?!! I was utterly blown away by the whole photographic process. Seeing the image slowly reveal itself, while processing the paper in developer, grabbed me instantly. To this day, I can remember how excited I was, it felt like magic!

I created this by hand at art college...NO PHOTOSHOP...It's a photogram thats been used to create a negative, then I cut them both up into strips and glues them to card, giving you an authentic, no computers involved, image. 1992

To my utter surprise, I was told I'd failed and would have to come back and resit the year. It was the fashion & textiles part of the course that scuppered me...Utter panic set in...I bumped into a friend the same day, who had also just been told he'd failed, for the same reason. He told me that there was a course starting after the holidays, I might be interested in. It was an ordinary national diploma in Audio Visual Studies. A huge portion of the course was photography. Suffice to say, I applied and was accepted...phew!

I passed the course with a Merit, after specialising in Photography. Here's the very first colour, studio photograph, I shot on 120 film. Our brief was to work with a graphic design student, to create images from their layouts. Here's the graphic students drawings, along with my photographic representation.

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I then went on to study a HND in Photography @ Bournemouth & Poole College of Art & Design. At the time this was reported to be one of the best photography courses in the country. going to Bournemouth was my first experience of living away from my family, suffice to say a lot of confused emotions came flooding out, from a very troubled childhood.

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Looking back at my time in Bournemouth, I'm left feeling, if I had the time over, I'd go straight to London and find an assisting job. I feel I could have spent 2 years learning more about photography on the job. I left Bournemouth feeling underwelmed and confused as to how to have a career as a photographer.

It took me 4 years, after leaving Bournemouth and a slice of luck, to land my first job in photography. I was fortunate to get an assisting role, in one of the UK's first digital studios (the digital kit, camera & mac cost a mind watering £60,000 back in 1995)

I assisted 4 photographers across 3 studios, one of which had a drive in infinity cove...it was huge!

At the studios, they shot using every format going, from 10x8 & 5x4 sheet film, to 120 & 35mm; there was also 3 digital kits. I was spoilt for the sheer learning capacity available to me and I grabbed the situation with both hands and embraced every day with excitement and energy.

I went from not knowing how to load 10x8/5x4 sheet film or how to use the digi back and software, to shooting my own jobs (the simpler end of things) I absorbed as much advice the photographers gave me, I was hungry for knowledge. I learnt as much as possible about the digital process, file sizes, RGB to CMYK conversion and not forgetting the amazing options photoshop brought to the party.

Early Digital Days

In the 90's digital photography was only capable of producing a maximum file size of 7mb, which equates to 2.33 mega pixels. This was one of the reasons why in the early days of digital, it was only really used for catalogue work, as it was only printed small and the subject matter was inanimate objects.

The grey shapes are a representation of the filter wheel and digital back. Its was cumbersome and only able to shoot non-moving subject matter

More importantly, you couldn't photograph anything that moved. Each shot was made up of 3 exposures, red, green & blue. There was a filter wheel on the front of the lens, that housed the coloured filters. It took about 10-seconds to shoot all 3 exposures and then there was the scsi connection to the computer (pre usb). You could literally shoot a product, then go and make yourself a cup of tea, on your return the file might have made it to the mac...it was a slow and temperamental compared to today's speed..

It had only been 3 months since I'd started and the boss came up to me and asked if I'd stay and do a 72 hour shift, straight through, no sleep. I kid you not. due to illness, he only had one photographer in work and me, the assistant. He asked if I'd stay and take on a photographer role, to help the head photographer get through all of the work.

My wage at the time was only £8k/yr (1995) and as I'd be working through potentially 2 nights, plus days and I was elevated to a photographers role, I asked the boss if he was going to pay me for the overtime. In an instant he grabbed me by the scuff of my neck and literally threw me out the door, shouting at me "how dare I ask if I was going to be paid!", closely followed by my bag and coat. Being in shock, was an understatement...I was so very upset and confused.

I used the energy it pumped through my veins and the confidence it had given me, to plough ahead with my photographic journey and it wasn't long before I got another assisting role, this time in London, assisting a very well known still life photographer called Carl Warner. He's still shooting today!

During my time with Carl, I learnt about how to cultivate client relationships, how to cost jobs and how copyright worked back then. It was a step up in photographic quality too, he worked for big ad agencies and the briefs were more involved and crafted. You'd see his work on bill boards and large ad campaigns. I was blown away by the difference of everything, the scale of budgets and photographic quality. Carl shot sheet film and then had it scanned, before going on to a retoucher he used back then called Alchemy.

By 1998 I landed a Head Photographers role in Central London, working for a reprographics firm called Mullis Morgan. During my 6 years at the company I flourished. They knew how hungry I was, so they gave me free reign to manage every aspect of the studio, from the type of work I brought in, to the finer details of digital kit I used. (thank you to Keith for trusting me!)

The company was based in the Brunswick Centre WC1N, a beautifully brutalist building, designed by Patrick Hodgkinson. It had a hard life for the first 30 years of its existence as it had been owned by Camden Council. In 2004 Allied London bought the building and got started with updating it, giving it some much needed love.

As a result MMorgan and the remaining inhabitants of the retail levels of the building were asked to move out. In this moment MMorgan started asking themselves, "if we don't have cheap space in central London, and a photography studio needs a lot of space....do we carry on with the studio?"

This sent a lightening bolt through me...I'd worked so hard to grow the client base of the studio and develope my photo skills, with big companies that included Proctor & Gamble, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencers...now that was in serious jeopardy.

John Lewis had a big job coming up that was worth thousands and thankfully they trusted me enough to write me a contract for the shoot. I could take the contract and find a bank or finance concern, that was happy to loan me the money, to buy the kit I needed and rent a studio.

It wasn't as straight forward as I thought and my bank told me "no way" are they lending me the money. I found a company called Photolease, who financed photographers. I arranged a meet, showed them the contract from John Lewis and they approved the loan on the spot!!

It was the moment that changed everything, I felt so lucky to have been gifted this opportunity and trust, by such a well known client, It allowed me to start my own business, with my own studio. What more could I have asked for..?! I was instantly filled with confidence.

My new studio was in an old coach house, between Brixton & Clapham North. I was in south London for 4 years, then moved to north London, where I rented a studio in an old ammunition factory. After north London, I got rid of the studio and moved my kit into central London, where I hired a desk space and storage for my kit, in a hire studio space. I'd learnt that clients preferred staying in the centre, hence the move.

Here's a very small selection of work I completed for clients while self employed.

My skills as a photographer run deep, I've shot every kind of subject, using every type of light source, both inside a studio and on location. I also developed my photoshop skills, allowing me to carry out the majority of the retouching myself.

I'm a professional photographer image maker, through to my bones.

I suffered for 2 years, with deep depression. At one point I took myself to a cliff edge, with the plan to jump...something I never saw coming. I was too strong to suffer with depression...until I wasn't! The reason I didn't....I have a daughter, Iris.

The amazing discovery while depressed was my anti depressant. I refused to take the pills, as they literally switched my brain OFF. The way I felt it at the time, if my brain was switched off, how could I rebuild my thoughts and life. My anti depressant was creativity.

I started creating ideas that came from me and not a job brief. Polishing cheap products, making them look expensive, just didn't sit with me at all anymore. The depression gave me time and space to feel again, even if the feelings were depressed.

These are some of the work I created while in the depths of depression, creating them was my anti depressant.

I called this series 'Fantastic Breakables'

Sitting at my mac one morning I decided to have a play on photoshop, something I didn't usually have the time to do and started creating visions, using old product photography, I'd shot years ago. At the time it felt like I was recycling the images...much in the same way I was trying to recycle myself.

At the time my motivation to create, was my anti depressant. I'd spent almost 20 years polishing turds (making cheap products look expensive ) and this was the first time I was creating, for the pure love of doing it.