ABOUT

My name is Sam and I make images. I would describe what I do as photographic illustration. Photographic in style, illustrated in that the scenes and characters are entirely created. I combine photography, digital illustration, various trained AI engines and Photoshop.

Over the years I have worked as a photographer, art director, creative advertising retoucher and illustrator and now I use my industry experience and the many techniques I have learnt to craft impactful high-resolution imagery. I like to work with you from concept through to execution, post-production and colour grading. That way I can understand and help you realise your vision.

My passion is working on storytelling images and projects that bring ideas to life that otherwise might be impossible. I know it is increasingly a challenge to secure the necessary time and budget for complicated shoots with large crews and many moving parts, so I aim to offer a solution that makes the impossible possible.

It's not my intention to replace photography - I love it, but modern technology and AI engines becoming advanced enough to create high resolution imagery now means that we can travel to exotic or inaccessible locations, go back in time or visit the future and do so without expensive shoots, castings, CGI renders, set-builds or flux capacitors.

Most importantly it's now possible to make images using AI that look good and not gimmicky. It's no longer about prompt engineering and random results, but about building a cohesive visual language and style. Take a look at my personal portfolio and you will see that although the people and places change, the look and feel can be slick and consistent. 

AI does have its limits however. The control is not as absolute as more traditional methods, but its speed and creativity more than make up for that. And it can be used to start the process by exploring ideas visually and getting inspiration, before combining it with more established methods and technologies.

The last thing I would like to say about what I do is that it is fun. Having an image in my head and realising that vision in a matter of hours or days rather than sometimes months and years is creatively very exciting and rewarding.

If you want to find out any more, please get in touch and I will be very happy to chat. I love creating images on a computer, but I am first and foremost a real human that loves being out in the world and I enjoy making contacts and exploring ideas together.

The images in my personal portfolio represent an ever evolving expression and exploration of my relationship with the sacred and the human. The characters are often deeply connected to place - they are perhaps the spirit or personification of the place, tree, flower or element - the fire, water, earth or air.

I have spent my life in close relationship with nature and have trained in shamanism, nature connection, forest therapy and psychotherapy and these are all strong influences. I find myself drawn to the ancient, ancestral, archetypal, anthropological and symbolic and like to explore the old places, ways, rites and ceremonies.

When I am engaging with the sacred in the real world, the camera is the furthest thing from my mind. I find any modern technology intrusive - breaking the enchantment by bringing in thoughts of the mundane, the virtual, the ego, the online. But the feeling and experience moves within me, coalescing into images in dreams and meditation and becomes my fuel for creativity.

It might seem paradoxical in ways to explore the ancient, archetypal and sacred with modern technology and artificial intelligence, but of all the ways I have explored expressing my inner world visually, it is by far the closest to what I see and feel in head and heart.