I was 21 when I moved to Nottingham in 1983. I had 3 ‘O’ levels and had worked in several jobs since leaving school at 16. My friends had all done ‘A’ levels and moved on to study degrees elsewhere.

I took street photographs on a Russian Zorki camera and thought, ‘I could do that with photography’… I applied and had an interview at Trent Polytechnic. I showed my portfolio of 10″x 8″ b/w prints of Hull that I printed in my mum’s bathroom and was suddenly moving to Nottingham and studying a degree myself. I treated myself to a Leica rangefinder camera, having saved up and shot with a wide angle lens forcing me to confront my subjects.