About
My name is Tony Littlejohns and Grey Haven Photographic is The World through my lens.
I first picked up a camera- my father’s- in 1985 after he died. It was an old Agfa Super Silette 35mm rangefinder with fixed 50mm lens. The various buttons, knobs and numbers meant nothing to me then. After a few weeks playing around with it I learnt to take light readings with the built-in selenium cell light meter and transfer that reading to the aperture and shutter speed controls around the lens. The f-stops and shutter speeds still meant little to me though. I then found his book- The 35mm Handbook, by Michael Freeman- and started to read it. I started to learn the relationship between aperture, shutter speed, focus and depth of field, and how I could alter the combination to create an entirely different picture of the same view or subject. I was hooked. Thus started what was to become my life’s passion.
In the late eighties I discovered the beauty of black and white and the impact that reducing a picture to shape, line, texture and tone can have. A new love affair started for me that will continue until I die!
A new thrill started when I got my first darkroom in the early nineties and saw my images appearing in the developing tray. Even though I now work digitally, I still get that same thrill. Whether I am developing a RAW digital negative or a 35mm negative that I have scanned in, working on that basic image and turning it into a beautiful print- a contemporary work of art- is where lies the thrill. I can’t paint or sketch, but I can use my eyes to notice potentially great pictures. The camera- film or digital- is just a tool that enables me to record that often fleeting moment in time.
Surreal self-portrait, inspired by the art of Maurice Escher
After my marriage headed south when my wife left in 2000 (nothing to do with my love affair with photography!) I was forced to re-evaluate my life. I realised that I wasn’t happy and left my engineering career of twenty-one years and headed across the world to see where life would take me. I joined a Raleigh International expedition in 2001 to do voluntary work in the jungles of Belize, then travelled on through Mexico and The States, which opened my eyes to the joys of world travel.
After several years back here, pursuing ideas around the country that didn’t work out, I joined Raleigh International again, this time to work in Chilean Patagonia in 2006, afterwards travelling through Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina; many photos here are from that time.
Since returning home, and after being unemployed for over a year, trying to get a job in youth development work, I decided it was time to follow my dream and see if I could put my photographic talent to use and make a living from what I love.
We shall see…