Story of Simon Birch

Side story.

At 30 I took a brief break, I was inspired by a book called Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. I went around the world photographing people that had an influence on my life.

This was perhaps the beginning of my exploration of story and connection which is expanded upon dramatically and beyond, in my most recent project, The 14th Factory.

I photographed and interviewed 30 people over a month and made one book. It was a great adventure. I repeated it ten years later after surviving cancer and was happy to note almost all 30 were still good friends. God knows why they put up with me!

But it is wonderful to take a moment to recognise, if you’re lucky enough, the people that you owe much too, and to have the resources to take a break and pursue an idea, reflect, document, with no agenda beyond just doing it and learning.