foreign good evening everyone my name's Ian Gerrard and I'm a photographer I'm here to tell you a bit about my career so far and also about my new book I often get asked if I studied photography at University and people are sometimes surprised that I didn't I wanted to but my parents wouldn't let me so I had to choose something else I loved history but my marks weren't very good but I was keen on geography too so that is what I did in the end I actually think it's made me a better photographer and has given my work a broader context on my degree course in my final year we studied all aspects of the development of cities and we had to do a presentation we could do what we wanted and it was really interesting the topics people chose I chose Street Markets for mine but a friend did his on the growth of urban transport Networks on graduation I went to the USA I knew I wanted to work as a photographer so I'd sent pictures to news organizations and advertising agencies hoping I might get something in a brochure or even a newspaper in fact it was a magazine that noticed my pictures and I worked for it for a year I learned a huge amount but what I really wanted to do was see the USA for myself I needed a theme something really American maybe photographing diners or shopping malls around the country then I remembered all those westerns I'd seen and I just knew it had to be horses I'd found what I wanted to focus on it was an amazing six months I started off in the baking Heat Of Summer on the east coast and finished my journey up in the mountains I get the most striking shots in the winter light although I do love the warmth in summer photos anyway I came back to Britain at the beginning of Spring and published my U.S photos in a small book I earned just enough to finance my next trip around the UK I felt it was time I explored my own country I'd done a lot of driving in the USA and I wanted a change from the car so went by motorbike instead I love train travel but I wanted to get to more remote areas I wanted to explore the relationship between people and place interestingly in the last few decades many photographers from the UK haven't done much on fishing communities here so that's what I did they've tended to focus on family life in inner city communities instead the resulting photos I'm putting together for my new book one thing I've learned is that it takes ages to produce a book almost as long in fact as it took me to travel around Britain and then develop all the photos I'd taken I started my journey in August and finished last month in November my book won't be in the shops until March though there's an exhibition of my pictures touring the UK from January it's funny I really wanted to call my book Visions but apparently there's already one called that so my Publishers suggested the title In Focus which I thought was horrible in the end we settled for images which is okay now I'm planning my next tour I wasn't sure which theme to choose this time I initially thought I'd look at lakes and mountains but then I saw a tractor in a field and I knew I'd do farming I've decided to use a special camera to create very large photos which I'm hoping to exhibit next year well if you have any questions about my new now you'll hear part two again good evening everyone my name's Ian Gerrard and I'm a photographer I'm here to tell you a bit about my career so far and also about my new book I often get asked if I studied photography at University and people are sometimes surprised that I didn't I wanted to but my parents wouldn't let me so I had to choose something else I loved history but my marks weren't very good but I was keen on geography too so that is what I did in the end I actually think it's made me a better photographer and has given my work a broader context on my degree course in my final year we studied all aspects of the development of cities and we had to do a presentation we could do what we wanted and it was really interesting the topics people chose I chose Street Markets for mine but a friend did his on the growth of urban transport Networks on graduation I went to the USA I knew I wanted to work as a photographer so I'd sent pictures to news organizations and advertising agencies hoping I might get something in a brochure or even a newspaper in fact it was a magazine that noticed my pictures and I worked for it for a year I learned a huge amount but what I really wanted to do was see the USA for myself I needed a theme something really American maybe photographing diners or shopping malls around the country then I remembered all those westerns I'd seen and I just knew it had to be horses I'd found what I wanted to focus on it was an amazing six months I started off in the baking Heat Of Summer on the east coast and finished my journey up in the mountains I get the most striking shots in the winter light although I do love the warmth in summer photos anyway I came back to Britain at the beginning of Spring and published my U.S photos in a small book I earned just enough to finance my next trip around the UK I felt it was time I explored my own country I'd done a lot of driving in the USA and I wanted a change from the car so went by motorbike instead I love train travel but I wanted to get to more remote areas I wanted to explore the relationship between people and place interestingly in the last few decades many photographers from the UK haven't done much on fishing communities here so that's what I did they've tended to focus on family life in inner city communities instead the resulting photos I'm putting together for my new book one thing I've learned is that it takes ages to produce a book almost as long in fact as it took me to travel around Britain and then develop all the photos I taken I started my journey in August and finished last month in November my book won't be in the shops until March though there's an exhibition of my pictures touring the UK from January it's funny I really wanted to call my book Visions but apparently there's already one called that so my Publishers suggested the title In Focus which I thought was horrible in the end we settled for images which is okay now I'm planning my next tour I wasn't sure which theme to choose this time I initially thought I'd look at lakes and mountains but then I saw a tractor in a field and I knew I'd do farming I've decided to use a special camera to create very large photos which I'm hoping to exhibit next year well if you have any questions about my new