This is a collection of 53 of my photographs from 1975 to the present day which fall loosely into the category of social documentary.

I remember in my late teenage years borrowing books from Kent County Library by Cartier-Bresson and Tony Ray-Jones. It was the latter’s A Day Off that made a lasting impression on me which resonated with my sense of identity as a wry observer.

Within a year, I was at college on Tyneside and through a friend was learning the basics of photography processing and printing in a makeshift darkroom in the Students’ Union building.

However, my career was to be in the parallel world of graphic design and marketing. My interest in photography endured as a serious hobby that I would engage in as often as I could, even if it meant getting up in the middle of the night to capture the dawn light. With the advent of digital photography, and of digital post-processing I found many of my professional skills transferred well to the craft of presenting the image.

Howard Sherwood, October 2019.